Studio: Yellowknives Dene First Nation’s Housing Strategy
In January of 2020 our team of seven non-Indigenous graduate planning students chose to take on a portion of an ongoing project for our client, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), by working in partnership with Together Design Lab at Ryerson University (TDL). This project began when YKDFN reached out to TDL Lab to assist them with the creation of a Housing Strategy for their two main communities of Ndilo and Dettah.
A site visit to meet with the YKDFN community members directly in Dettah and Ndilo was a significant part of the project and was a way to support the ongoing development of the YKDFN Housing Strategy. This field visit allowed us to meet directly with the YKDFN leadership and mainstream governments, and also supported the completion of our three key objectives.
Firstly, to develop an archiving framework for traditional knowledge, community mapping materials and Elder interviews with YKDFN. Secondly, to identify and understand the complex relationships that exist between the key organizations and community involved in facilitating housing in YKDFN. Finally, to develop a toolkit to address the importance of Indigenous Planning to three core demographics: students, academics and the planning profession based on our learnings throughout the field visit and studio project.
On the left, the first document a process report covers the journey of this studio from start to finish. The second document is one the deliverables; A Toolkit for Non-Indigenous Planners.
