INDIGENOUS HOMELESSNESS INDIGENOUS HOMELESSNESS Perspectives from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand Edited by Evelyn J. Peters and Julia Christensen UMP University of Manitoba Press University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3T 2M5 uofmpress.ca © The Authors 2016 Printed in Canada Text printed on chlorine-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of photocopying or any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca, or call 1-800-893-5777. Interior design: Karen Armstrong Cover design: Jess Koroscil Cover image: Glenna Matoush, Untitled, 2009 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Indigenous homelessness : perspectives from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand / edited by Evelyn J. Peters, Julia Christensen. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-88755-826-9 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-88755-528-2 (pdf) ISBN 978-0-88755-526-8 (epub) 1. Indian homeless persons—Canada. 2. Homeless persons —Canada. 3. Homeless persons—Australia. 4. Homeless persons—New Zealand. 5. Native peoples—Canada—Social conditions. 6. Aboriginal Australians— Social conditions. 7. Maori (New Zealand people)—Social conditions. 8. Homelessness—Canada. 9. Homelessness—Australia. 10. Homelessness—New Zealand. I. Peters, Evelyn J. (Evelyn Joy), 1951–, editor II. Christensen, Julia, 1978–, editor III. Title. HV4493.I53 2016 362.5’92089 C2016-903136-5 C2016-903137-3 This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Manitoba Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage, Tourism, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. C016245 Contents Introduction Julia Christensen .............................................................................................1 Part 1: Canada 1. Indigenous Homelessness: Canadian Context Julia Christensen ...........................................................................................15 2. “They Don’t Let Us Look After Each Other Like We Used To”: Reframing Indigenous Homeless Geographies as Home/Journeying in the Northwest Territories, Canada Julia Christensen with Paul Andrew ..............................................................24 3. The Importance of Hidden Homelessness in the Housing Strategies of Urban Indigenous People Evelyn J. Peters and Selena Kern ...................................................................49 4. No Dumping: Indigenousness and the Racialized Police Transport of the Urban Homeless Joshua Freistadt ............................................................................................67 5. Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Respondents to the Health and Housing in Transition (HHiT) Study: An Intersectional Approach Fran Klodawsky, Rebecca Cherner, Tim Aubry, Susan Farrell, Julie Parrell, and Barbara A. Smith ...................................................................................91 6. The Inclusion of Indigenous Voices in Co-Constructing “Home”: Indigenous Homelessness in a Northern Semi-Urban Community in Manitoba Marleny M. Bonnycastle, Maureen Simpkins, and Annette Siddle ................116 7. Community-Engaged Scholarship: A Path to New Solutions for Old Problems in Indigenous Homelessness Wilfreda E. Thurston, David Turner, and Cynthia Bird ...............................149 8. “All We Need Is Our Land”: Exploring Southern Alberta Urban Indigenous Homelessness Yale D. Belanger and Gabrielle Lindstrom ...................................................161 9. Rural Indigenous Homelessness in Canada Rebecca Schiff, Alina Turner, and Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff ....................185 Part 2: Australia 10. Indigenous Homelessness: Australian Context Paul Memmott and Daphne Nash ...............................................................213 11. Indigenous Fringe Dwelling in Geraldton, Western Australia: A Colonial Legacy Sarah Prout Quicke and Charmaine Green ..................................................221 12. Looking through the Service Lens: Case Studies in Indigenous Homelessness in Two Regional Australian Towns Paul Memmott and Daphne Nash (with Rob Willetts and Patricia Franks). 245 13. “We Are Good-Hearted People, We Like to Share”: Definitional Dilemmas of Crowding and Homelessness in Urban Indigenous Australia Kelly Greenop and Paul Memmott ...............................................................270 14. Enforcing “Normality”: A Case Study of the Role of the “Three-Strikes” Housing Policy Model in Australian Indigenous Homelessness Christina Birdsall-Jones ..............................................................................300 Part 3: New Zealand 15. Indigenous Homelessness: New Zealand Context Shiloh Groot and Evelyn J. Peters ................................................................323 16. Tūrangawaewae Kore: Nowhere to Stand Deidre Brown .............................................................................................331 17. Emplaced Cultural Practices through which Homeless Men Can Be Māori Pita King, Darrin Hodgetts, Mohi Rua, and Tiniwai Te Whetu ..................363 Conclusion Evelyn J. Peters ...........................................................................................389 Contributors .............................................................................................397 Illustrations Figure 2.1. Map of the Northwest Territories. ...........................................30 Figure 6.1. Map of Manitoba. ..................................................................119 Figure 10.1. Map of Australia showing the sites of case studies. Map by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ..........214 Figure 11.1. Proposed Reserve sites in relation to urban Geraldton, 1936. ...............................................................................................229 Figure 11.2. A Blood Alley Camp, 1960. Source: © The West Australian, reprinted with permission. ..............................................................232 Figure 12.1. Map of Northwest Queensland Region and Barkly Region showing their regional centres, Mount Isa and Tennant Creek respectively, other Indigenous population centres and Indigenous language groups. Map by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ..............................................................................249 Figure 12.2. Plan layout of Jimaylya Topsy Harry Centre, Mount Isa. Figure by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. .....252 Figure 12.3. Typical movements of Indigenous people through Mount Isa housing and institutionalized residences, including pathways in and out of the Jimaylya Centre. Figure by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ......................................................254 Figure 12.4. Plan layout of Tennant Creek Women’s Refuge, July 2012. Figure by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ...............................................................................................256 Figure 12.5. Movements of Indigenous people from the Barkly Region into Tennant Creek, showing flows between rental housing and transitional housing. Figure by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ..............................................................................258 Figure 12.6. Diagram illustrating vertical capital attainment for rough sleepers via Indigenous service facility. Figure by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ....................................265 viii iNDiGENouS HoMELESSNESS Figure 13.1. Map of Australia showing major cities and the field sites of Mount Isa and Inala (a suburb of Brisbane). Map by Linda Thomson, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. ...................................271 Figure 13.2. An integrated model of crowding including antecedent and mediating factors. Adapted from Gifford (2007, 195, 214, Fig. 7.12). .......................................................................................279 Figure 13.3. Mould in the bathroom of an Inala house, caused by poor initial construction and ventilation. The resident requested to have this documented by researchers. Photograph by Kelly Greenop. ............285 Figure 16.1. Māori waiting for a Native Land Court hearing, Whanganui district, late 1860s. Photograph by William James Harding. Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/1-000013-G. ....................................................341 Figure 16.2. Parihaka on 5 November 1881. Residents congregated centre right, waiting for the invasion by the Armed Constabulary. Photograph by William Andrews Collis. Alexander Turnbull Library, PA1-q-183-6. ..................................................................................342 Figure 16.3. State houses in Champion Street, in the Wellington satellite suburb of Porirua East, c. 1950s. Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2- 051884-F. ..........................................................................................349 Figure 16.4. Ngāti Whātua homes at Ōkahu Bay burned on the instructions of the Commissioner for Crown Lands, 1951. Photograph by New Zealand Herald. Auckland Library, 995.1103 O63 O63p. ................352 Figure 16.5. Repatriation of the Te Pahi medal, Papuke (above Wairoa Bay), 29 November 2014. Photograph by Grant Bulley. ...........................358 Figure 17.1. A researcher and a participant working in the marae gardens. Photographs courtesy of the authors. .................................364 Figure 17.2. Our research in action. .........................................................367 Figure 17.3. Miro working away in the marae garden. .............................377 Figure 17.4. Kaitiaki (guardian) of the garden. ........................................379 Figure 17.5. Garden barbecue and black boil-up pot cooking lunch. .......381 Figure 17.6. Miro cooking lunch for the Streeties and the research team. ................................................................................................383 Introduction Julia Christensen Canada, Australia, and New Zealand share a common creation story as now-sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations. Ironically, the Commonwealth was formed through the decolonization of the British Empire and the granting of self-governance to its former colonies. This is ironic because many of the Indigenous1 peoples whose territories were dispos- sessed and whose cultures were desecrated through the “taking” of these new worlds are still calling for recognition and decolonization in their own right. Though definitions and legal statuses differ between these three contexts, as the self-identified descendants of the original inhabitants of those colonized territories, Indigenous peoples today are at various points in processes of self- determination, self-governance, and reclaiming of ancestral lands. Yet despite many significant advances in the political and economic clout of some Indigenous peoples, overall they continue to experience a higher rate of social, economic, and health inequalities. These inequalities explain in part the disproportionate number of Indigenous people affected by homelessness in both rural and urban settings in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (see Anderson, Tayler, and Collins 2014; Beavis et al. 1997; Belanger, Awosoga, and Weasel Head 2013; Collins 2010; Memmott and Chambers 2008). These disparities are in many ways bound up in, and representative of, long-standing colonial processes of social, cultural, economic, and physical marginalization (of Indigenous peoples) on what remain their traditional homelands. Though the particular experiences of Indigenous homelessness reflect their unique geo- graphic contexts, they share the story they tell about the social and systematic vulnerability of Indigenous peoples in settler colonial societies.