#Inuit and Metis worldview

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What is Indigenous Homelessness?

         I think the first thing that should be discussed about it and further clarified is what Indigenous Homelessness is. The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness defines Indigenous homelessness as a state which designates First Nations, Metis and Inuit people that lack stable, long-term, appropriate housing, or having the means to obtain such housing immediately (Thistle, 2017). Unlike, the generally known colonialist explanation of homelessness, Indigenous homelessness is fully defined and recognized through encompassing lenses of Indigenous worldviews (Thistle, 2017). These perspectives take into account: “individuals, families and communities isolated from their relationships to land, water, place, family, kin, each other, animals, cultures, languages and identities (Thistle, 2017).” It is important to note that Indigenous people going through these categories of homelessness are not able to reconnect to their Indigeneity, culturally, spiritually, emotionally or physically because of their lost relationships (Thistle, 2017). 

         The multifaceted interactions concerning these aspects in Indigenous homelessness generate circumstances that overlap with the four different kinds of homelessness as stated by in the “Canadian Definition of Homelessness” such as, “Unsheltered, Emergency Sheltered, Provisionally Accommodated and At Risk of Homelessness (Thistle, 2017).” These typologies are related to housing markets and limits of affordable shelter but, in relation to Indigenous homelessness, it is not the response to those circumstances but, the issue stems from Canada’s historical legacy of settler colonialism and the continuation of it (Thistle, 2017). Which has displaced Indigenous peoples such as First Nations, Metis and Inuit from their traditional societies and lifestyle (Thistle, 2017).

          As Canadians, we must agree on the following difficult truths: being homeless is not something Indigenous people choose, homelessness is a negative, stressful and traumatic experience, a disproportionate number of Indigenous peoples are forced into activities criminalized by Canada, and for far too long the higher morality rate in First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities have been ignored (Thistle, 2017).

          With that said, the Indigenous peoples in Canada have articulated twelve dimensions of Indigenous Homelessness: historic displacement, contemporary geographic separation, spiritual disconnection, mental disruption and imbalance, cultural disintegration, overcrowding, relocation and mobility, going home, nowhere to go, escaping or evading harm, emergency crisis and climatic refugee (Thistle, 2017). 

          I know this list is overwhelming, but it has every reason to be considering the past. Furthermore, as Julia Christensen argues “Indigenous experiences of homelessness are at once collective and immediate” (Christensen, 2013). She further goes on to argue that the mitigation of Indigenous homelessness in Canada ultimately depends on having a decolonizing agenda that particularly addresses the contemporary problems that are due to lingering effects that have not disappeared such as the being socially excluded, family and community breakdowns, loss of cultural identity, intergenerational trauma and institutional discrimination (Christensen, 2013).