Big River First Nation Homes

"In my community, I witnessed, in entirety, caring and selflessness. Working together to build a safe space for our growing families, teaching the younger generations of our traditions and culture and taking care of the lands and water. Being taught to care for each other, to hunt and gather, to create art and build homes. To sing and dance and pray. I was always taught that working together, as a collective, insured our safety and survival. To never take more than we needed and to be thankful for what we had." (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2024, p.267)

"My positive living experiences is learning my culture from elders as well as living off the land and learning to survive, even trying to learning my mother tongue Nehiyaw, it has been quite a journey having to keep a positive mindset despite living in a reservation where there’s not really much to do unless its planned culturally or scheduled in the future for people to come together. I’d like to see more housing for people in their own homes, even living off the grid, and having sustainable housing and power such as solar, wind, and hydro etc. I can see the positive impact it would have on the community in my home of Big River First Nation." (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2023, p.273)

"I particularly remember visiting Big River First Nation and seeing the homes build and provided to youth through One House Many Nations’. The homes are getting better with each iteration because of community engagement. Involving the youth in the design and building process allows the OHMNs’ team to customize homes specific to the needs of the youth. I witnessed the delivery of a home in summer of 2023. The owner of this home wanted to build a track for their cat to walk on. The track was intentionally left unfinished so that the youth could practice building and finish the track themselves. So much thought has gone into the building of these homes. The installation must be rigid to sustain the transportation to the Reserve, so spray foam installation is used. This is a large expense but is required to ensure quality. It was also discovered through an iterative process that skylights weakened the structural integrity of the home when the seal was broken during the moving process. The team conducted post occupancy evaluations of the homes during our trip in 2023. So much care has been taken in improving the homes throughout the years. I value the consideration of each of the youths’ specific needs. The homes have a minimal aesthetic and something I think would improve the homes in the future is more cultural considerations in the fixtures and finishes. There will always be room for improvement. For example it would be great if the homes had a mudroom or vestibule so that dirt didn’t track into the homes as easily. The process of building and evaluating these homes is allows OHMNs’ to assess what would work better in the future. The homes are exemplary of quality in many ways. However the quality that I am seeing most clearly is the process of building and reiterating, constantly improving." (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2024, p.10)