Speaker Bio - Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom

Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom (nee Weasel Head) is from the Kainaiwa First Nation in Southern Alberta and is an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies with Mount Royal University.

She currently teaches Introduction to Indigenous Studies: Canadian perspectives, Introduction to International Indigenous Studies, and Indigenous Research Ethics and Protocols. Her research interests include meaningful assessment in higher education, Indigenous homelessness, cultural and social determinants of health, SoTL: intercultural parallels, Indigenous lived-experience of resilience, parenting assessment tools reform in Child Welfare, anti-colonial theory and anti-racist pedagogy.

Presentation Title: 

"We aren't homeless, we are houseless": Reframing housing needs in First Nations communities using Indigenous research methodologies

Description:

Research on, rather than with, Indigenous peoples has largely typified the approach of Western institutions which quite often results in misrepresentations and misinterpretations of Indigenous cultures. Data-driven research around housing insecurity in First Nations communities offers a bleak picture of the current housing situation whilst capturing only a portion of the factors. Missing from the data are the strengths of First Nations communities and the potential of Indigenous-driven research initiatives to reframe current approaches to housing disparities in First Nations communities. In this presentation, I will describe how Indigenous research can offer another way of understanding what housing means to Indigenous peoples and illuminates how First Nations values attached to place, space, and land – Mother Earth – combine to form a distinct perspective that transcends notions of personal property and the privatization and ownership of individual spaces. Conceptualizing policy and enacting practices from a Western lens alone is insufficient to adequately meet the housing needs of First Nations' peoples today. Dialogue and true partnerships, as well as sharing of power, are necessary components for sustainable housing improvements In First Nations communities.