INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

BY REBECCA MELNYK INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Among the estimated 634 First Nation communities across Canada, many continue to be sidelined or completely excluded from initial planning phases of new developments and renovation projects. Other instances of community engagement can be far from authentic, where Indigenous Peoples are often approached with a blanket notion of public consultation.

As every community has their own story to tell and knowledge to share, a one-sizefits-all view can have negative impacts. A group of experts on the topic gathered recently to talk about the future of engagement and creating inclusive spaces. In May, a virtual session at the Interior Design Show’s Spring Conference brought together Indigenous advisors and designers who discussed how to meaningfully include Indigenous voices in the built environment.

“One of the biggest protocol violations is to come to a place that isn’t yours and assume that it is,” says Guy Freedman, president of First People’s Group, adding, “whether you’re Indigenous or not, we still have a duty to consult respectfully with the people whose land we’re going to build on.”

“The last 200 years, as Indigenous communities, we’ve had little say in what our institutions have looked like.”

Brian Porter, principal of Two Row Architect, a firm headquartered on Six Nations of the Grand River, south of Hamilton, spoke about oral traditions. “Storytelling is a huge part of what defines our cultures,” he says.

His advice for consultants? “If you don’t take the time to listen to the stories, you’re really short-changing yourselves; you’re really denying yourself the opportunity to understand the culture— to hear the way it was intended to be passed down, which is orally,” he says. “You’re denying yourself the richness and diversity and potential that is there with each project.”

As a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Indigenous Task Force, formed in 2016, Porter has been working to promote the idea, “nothing about us without us,” as a way of advancing with capital projects. “The last 200 years, as Indigenous communities, we’ve had little say in what our institutions have looked like,” he says.

“It’s very, very rare for a school to get built so it’s important to engage the community because, oftentimes, they have aspirations for that structure that might not be apparent to someone who is coming from somewhere else.”

In remote Indigenous communities, he sees schools as community centres— the funeral home, assembly hall and banquet hall.

“The way for a consultant to understand is to really budget a lot of time in the early process, to hear the community, to understand what their aspirations are for the structure,” he says. “You can’t just go in with a status quo viewpoint. The biggest risk is the structure of a project not reaching its full potential because you haven’t taken the time.”

BUILDING TIME INTO A PROJECT

Due diligence is often neglected when it comes to involving the right people from the get-go. As Freedman says, “The storytelling has to come from the people who have the stories.” Sometimes, figuring out who needs to “be at the table” happens over longer periods of time.

When setting up early consultation strategies, Porter’s team aims to speak for only five per cent of the meeting and listen to community responses for the remaining time. Reflecting on his experiences, he says sometimes “mainstream consultants” wanting to show their empathy interrupt pauses during the conversations, not appreciating the “cadence and timing” that goes into the process. “They don’t understand those gaps are meaningful, that you have to be patient and you have to wait sometimes,” he says. “They are trained to keep things moving, and everything has to stop and start, and time is valuable, and you have to fill it up with verbiage.”

AN ONGOING ENGAGEMENT

To effectively engage with Indigenous communities, strategies must be continuous—beginning at project conception and following through to schematic design, contract and documents—void of foregone conclusions, says Porter, who enjoys taking a group from the community to visit a construction site where they can see their initial ideas incorporated into a design, being executed in built form.

“There’s a responsibility,” he says. “You have to be responsive, you have to be transparent, you have to be prepared for the community to not necessarily agree with everything you’re saying. You have to demonstrate sincerity and a willingness to incorporate their ideas and wishes. There’s nothing worse than having an engagement session where there’s really no sincerity on the other side.”

ENGAGING THROUGH VARIOUS PLATFORMS

Social media platforms can be an inclusive and effective means of reaching out to communities to see how they’d like to be involved with a project. This could involve a multi-layered approach, such as online, through the community newsletter and a flyer. The key is creating various platforms that suit different comfort levels, being able to “read a room” and listening closely for real information that isn’t always expressed in obvious spaces.

“I’ve been involved in talking circles and sometimes the people aren’t comfortable in those forums,” says Porter. “Sometimes you can get a sense of someone who has an idea, but isn’t comfortable in that platform.”

BEYOND TOKENISM

As new institutions rise, constructing them also means committing to an authentic representation when incorporating interiors that reflect Indigenous culture. “Circles and medicine wheels are important, but they’ve almost kind of become iconic, and they get applied fairly liberally as a way of indigenating,” says Porter. “I would encourage consultants to think more about values than representation.”

A few values are sustainability, biodiversity, stewardship of the land and planning for the seventh generation. “These are world views we’ve had for 30,000 years, so it’s nice to see

PURPOSE-BUILT INDIGENOUS HUB BREAKS GROUND

Construction is officially underway on what will be Ontario’s first mixed-use, purpose-built Indigenous hub, set to rise on a full city block of 2.4 acres in the West Don Lands of Toronto. A goal is to increase vital services for the 70,000 Indigenous Peoples living in the Greater Toronto Area.

Indigenous-led organizations, government officials and developers will all be working on the multi-million dollar Canary District project, which has been taking shape ever since the Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletes’ Village evolved from its brief 2015 Games-related uses.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT) partnered with Dream, Dream Impact Trust, Kilmer Group and Tricon Residential to co-develop the site for residential and retail uses.

At the heart, is a new home for AHT, which combines traditional healing practices and western medicine. At four-storeys and 45,000-square feet, it will open in 2022 as Anishnawbe Health Toronto Community Health Centre.

The rest of the hub is slated for 2024 and will include a childcare centre for 49 children, the restoration of a 1850s heritage building, a condo, and purpose-built rentals. Miziwe Biik Training Institute will double its physical space for more training and employment opportunities, with a hands-on carpentry workshop, tutoring classrooms, and a business incubator. It will also house a new Indigenous EarlyON Child and Family Centre.

Beyond its industrial past, the site is poised to bring green space to a once obsolete block, and thoughtful planning, too, with numerous community engagements. As design consultant on the entire project Indigenous-led Two Row Architect developed eight Indigenous design guidelines to make sure all aspects of the hub honour Indigenous knowledge, history and values. BDP Quadrangle and Stantec also designed the masterplan.

mainstream architecture and design inch closer to the world view we’ve had for so long.”

He sees projects becoming more interdisciplinary, with early involvement from landscape architects, arborists and civil engineers who, together, bring a more “holistic” view to a project. The mass timber movement, underway province-wide, spotlights an inherently sustainable material that also speaks to Indigenous values. “When you think about our brothers and sisters on the West Coast who, when they felled a cedar tree, used every piece of that cedar tree,” he says, calling on firms to approach resource extraction from a similar perspective.

SYSTEM SHIFTS

Freedman works with three principles: symbolism, substantive and systemic. “Reconciliation is about changing the way universities operate, changing the way hospitals operate, changing the way

An education fund for Indigenous students residing in British Columbia has been established by a group of consulting firms, engineers and architects. The goal is one of healing, encouraging and supporting Indigenous people pursuing postsecondary studies in engineering or architecture. The first ḴEL,ḴELOŦEN ȻE S,ISTEW̱ award of $5,000 will be presented to one successful applicant this November.

government operates,” he says. “You can’t have systems change if you don’t have substantive changes that go along with symbolism.”

Post-secondary schools and architectural programs also need to do a better job at teaching traditional Indigenous values. “The way I was trained in university was very foreign from the way that I thought,” says Porter, thinking back to his time as a student.

His advice for anyone planning a project? Be unafraid and honest. “I remember at one time I was doing some work in Northern Ontario and we were going into a community consultation and I was with some suits and ties from Toronto,” he says. “They stopped at a gas station about 10 miles from the community and changed into work boots, blue jeans and red plaid shirts— trying to fit in.

“I was really offended that they chose to put on this costume. The consultation didn’t go very well; the group could sense this was kind of staged. It’s not the way to do it.”

The best consultations, he says, are “comprehensive, well-staged, wellcommunicated.” This makes for a more successful and cost-effective project that ends up being a “complete representation of the community— more beautiful, less toxic.” | CFM&D

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TECH SECTOR SPINOFFS EVOLVING RETAIL APPETITE OPERATIONAL SUPPORT TALENT ENTICEMENT TACTICS PROPERTY TAX DEFINING DEMAND Occupiers’ liability: A board meeting gone wrong

Anyone who has ever been to BY DAVID ELMALEH a board meeting (or a partners, AND GABRIELA CARACAS shareholders, town hall, or any similar type of meeting) can attest to

the tension that often arises. The law is clear that occupiers have a duty to maintain their premises reasonably safe for those who enter it. But what about when an individual commits assault while at one of these meetings? Should the occupier or organizer of the board meeting be liable for failing to ensure the safety and security of those lawfully on the premises?

In Omotayo v. Da Costa, 2018, the defendant occupier, Metro Toronto Condominium Corporation 1292 (MTCC 1292), was successful in dismissing the plaintiff’ s claim and the assailant’ s crossclaim when a member in attendance at a condominium board meeting struck another meeting attendee with a chair.

Justice Nishikawa found that the duty the condominium corporation owed to the plaintiff did not include preventing an assault that occurred during their condominium board meeting.

Facts of the case

The plaintif f, Jacqueline Omotayo, was a resident and former chair of the condominium corporation. The defendant, Jose Da Costa, was also a resident and former president of the condominium corporation. An emergency board meeting was held on Oct. 4, 2011, to discuss the future organization of the board as Ms. Omotayo had recently been removed from her position as chair and Mr. Da

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Costa advised that he no longer wished to occupy his role as president. The emergency meeting took place at the defendant’ s (MTCC 1292’ s) premises.

At the emergency meeting, the plaintiff and Mr. Da Costa entered into a heated argument, which led Mr. Da Costa to “lose it” and strike the plaintiff on the head with a chair. Mr. Da Costa was charged by the police and received a conditional discharge for assault with a weapon.

The plaintiff commenced a civil action against Mr. Da Costa for his use of force as well as MTCC 1292 for failing to ensure her safety and failing to employ security measures at board meetings. MTCC 1292 brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiff’ s claim against it which was only opposed by Mr. Da Costa given his crossclaim against MTCC 1292 for contribution and indemnity.

Summary judgment motion

MTCC took the position that its duty under the law is confined to the physical condition of the premises and foreseeable risks, not the unforeseeable conduct of individuals in attendance. Meanwhile, Mr. Da Costa argued that MTCC 1292’ s duty extends to having rules of conduct for meetings, policies relating to abusive language, threats and intimidating behavior, and a duty to hire and supervise competent professionals to oversee its business (including, if appropriate, security personnel). Mr. Da Costa further argued that the assault was foreseeable given the quarrelsome nature of MTCC 1292’ s board meetings and a prior unrelated incident involving the plaintiff and another member of MTCC 1292 wherein the police was called.

In reaching her decision, Justice Nishikawa looked to Coleiro v. Premier Fitness Clubs where summary judgment was granted in favour of the defendant www.REMInetwork.com | June 2018 15

Want to stand out on social media? Don’t fake it By Steven Chester Let’s face it, we all want our businesses to be social media rock stars, and we know it ain’t easy. It’s becoming more prevalent that some of the most popular social media platforms have iff commen been infiltrated by those who game the system. Da Costa fo TCC 1292 fo This includes those that buy fake followers and “likes” in order to create the illusion that their nd failing to social media profile is more popular than it is. board meet These fake followers are predominantly bots – otion for su accounts run by software designed to look and the plaintiff’ act like real people. nly oppos d New services are also popping up that allow ossclaim ag authentic social media accounts to become n and in part of the bot game. By signing up for the service, the user authorizes their account to automatically like, follow and randomly udgment m comment on other users’ posts, and in turn the posi i they trade that fake engagement with other is c n ne users. Sound harmless enough? The thing the prem is you have no say in in the message your account is spreading or where it ends up. unforese in attendan Ask yourself this: What’s more important, a argued th having 50,000 cosmetic followers, or having 500 followers who are in your target market s o h ving that actually want to hear from you? s, policies re t d a r d ats uty a to As a consumer, it’s even simpler, as deceptive tactics are easy to spot. If you’r using underhanded methods to promote e professional your business, this can be viewed as a luding, if ap reflection of your product or service. Your Mr. Da Cos integrity is at stake. ult was fore This is one of the more complex topics that nature of M can’t be fully covered in this space. As always, nd a prior u I invite you to stay social and continue the plaintiff and conversation on Twitter where I’ll share a link to at @Chestergosocial the full article. 2 2 wh rei ng her dec Steven Chester is the Digital Media Director of MediaEdge Communications. With 15 years’ experience oo e to C in cross-platform communications, Steven helps s where sum companies expand their reach through social media and other digital initiatives. To contact him directly, email d in favour gosocial@mediaedge.ca. SERVING THE FACILIT Y CLEANING & MAINTENANCE INDUSTRY

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