Indigenous housing ‘paying itself forward’

Niagara voters paying close attention to candidates views on Indigenous issues

As Niagara prepares to vote in Monday’s federal election, each resident will head to the polls with a varying issues on their mind.

For many, it will be the economy. For others it may be the environment, the pandemic or housing. But in this election, in a survey taken before Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau called a snap election, one in five Canadians ranked reconciliation with Indigenous peoples as a top-five priority issue — double that of 2019.

Former Niagara College student A.B. Froman, who comes from Six Nations Reserve, is taking her personal experience as an Indigenous youth with her to the polls.

“I’m obviously looking at the Indigenous issues, that’s a ma- jor one. But I’m looking at the Indigenous issues that seem to (have) had their 15 minutes of fame, and then it kind of went by and there’s no big change or impact,” said Froman.

“I’m looking for tokenism, too. I’m watching who’s saying what and how they’re saying it, because we know real and we know fake and we know when we’re being tokenized.”

In May, the country was shaken when the bodies of 215 Indigenous children were found on the site of a former Kamloops, B.C., residential school. Several other Indigenous groups have since uncovered evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves on or near the sites of former residential schools.

Niagara Chapter-Native Women executive director Wendy Sturgeon said the uncovering of mass graves wasn’t a “discovery” as people often call it, because the Indigenous community knew the graves existed.

Even after the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission documented witness accounts, the government didn’t do anything to start the reconciliation process by uncovering those graves and “honouring the spirits of the little ones.”

“It took our own community, with our own monies, with our own people, to go and do it,” Sturgeon said. “It’s up to us. We do have to do some of this ourselves to get things going and we do.”

With reconciliation a top issue in the election, Sturgeon said making retribution with Indigenous people won’t be as simple as throwing money around. It’s about creating policy and legislation, “one little step at a time,” but it will also be up to

Canadians to educate themselves on what “their fore-bearers have done.”

Years ago, Sturgeon participated in a campaign calledUp 4 Debate, a national conversation with women. Continuing to do that will be crucial, particularly when it comes to dispelling racism and perpetual lies about Indigenous men and women, and their history with the country.

“The more information that we can get to the debate floor, the more information that we can share,” she said. “We’re in support of sharing information that informs Canadians about the truth and the facts.”

Indigenous communities — in Niagara and throughout Canada — are used to working, negotiating and advocating for their people with whichever government is in power, said Sturgeon. They have worked with Conservatives, Liberals and NDPs at the local level, and “support them all.”

“We’re done asking, but that’s been going on forever. That’s why Indigenous women are doing it for themselves. We’re not waiting for government handouts, we’re not waiting for people to say OK, you can do this or that. We just go ahead and do it,” said Sturgeon.

As a college student, Froman organized the Faceless Dolls Workshop, honouring the memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. But being able to attend college started with having a place to live through Niagara Regional Housing’s rentgeared-to-income program.

Froman, who now works and lives in Brantford, said having safe housing changed her life. She escaped a domestic abuse relationship, graduated from Niagara College, studied overseas and is now a “thriving taxpayer.”

She left the housing program after two years to give it to “that next person in line.” So when Froman hears politicians speak about how much money it costs to invest in housing, she wonders if they understand how much it will save them in the long run.

“It’s paying itself forward. You can look at it in a numerical sense or you can look at it in a human lens. Putting money towards housing crisis and having those non-for-profit agencies that help with housing crisis, expanding that money to them, helps your entire society grow,” said Froman.

The issues facing urban Indigenous youths are “skyrocketing,” especially over the past

few years, said Froman.

She added they are dealing with social barriers, the housing crisis, mental-health issues, the opioid crisis, a high suicide rate and death-related accidents. Add in the coronavirus pandemic on top of that, it’s been “very stressful for the community.”

But dealing with invisible homelessness, first and foremost, is critical. And that’s what Froman told Bardish Chagger, minister of diversity, inclusion and youth, during a roundtable event.

“If you want to help eliminate this ongoing issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people across Canada, or even attach it to a municipal, federal and provincial level, look at your housing crisis,” she said.

“I’ve seen invisible homelessness, people couch surfing. I’ve seen young Indigenous girls running from home to home trying to just escape their feelings and escape what’s going

on,” she said.

Despite announcements that funding is going towards homelessness, the Indigenous are still “waiting for those promises” said Froman. In Niagara alone, there were 30 youths in one program in dire need of housing — and those were just the youths willing to come forward.

“The trust has been broken over the years and that’s just the historical implications. (The government is) not doing a good job gaining that trust back,” Froman said. “Bring us to the table.”

She added that many Indigenous youths don’t feel as though politicians have done anything for them, so it’s now up to local politicians to put the work in by creating a safe space and listening.

“Find us — we shouldn’t be going to look for you because (we are the ones) left out of the conversation,” she said. “Find those urban youth centres, non-profits, the people that have eager young minds that are willing and wanting (those) local politicians to discuss.”

Sturgeon said any new law or policy, whether at the local or federal level, needs to start with putting Indigenous people first, because what is good for Indigenous people is good for everyone. There is no going backwards, now it’s about “rebalancing what went wrong.”

“We’re not trying to shame or blame anybody. We’re trying to live our lives. We’re trying to have good health. We’re trying to make sure our families are intact and safe.

“So all those things together, what does it mean? Wealth and health and justice.”