‘mînawâchihiwewi-ne-wîkiwan/Healing Our Home: Buildings of the Land’

Written on 10 June 2025. Posted in News

debatesBY BOHDANA CHIUPKA-INNES, FREDDIE HUPPÉ CAMPBELL, MACKENZIE ROOP AND PAULINA LARREATEGUI FOR INDIGENOUS DEBATES

The words ‘mînawâchihiwewi-ne-wîkiwan/Healing Our Home: buildings of the Land’ go far beyond a clean energy project title. They are interconnected to the Moose Cree ways of being. That means there is life in the words that extend to the energy-efficient homes being designed and built through this work. This is about creating something that is ‘of’ the land, which is a relational approach grounded in Indigenous teachings that diverges from mainstream approaches within clean energy and energy efficiency and housing sectors.

Moose Cree First Nation is a Cree Nation whose traditional territory overlaps with the Muskegowuk Territory and extends from southern James Bay along Moose River down to Hearst, Ontario, and into Quebec along the border.

The Moose Cree People understand the world as they are all related to Mother Earth’s creations. Everything is interconnected with one another to achieve harmony and balance. This is the Cree way of life, which is called ililiwi-pimâtisîwin. Due to colonization, the homes stopped reflecting the Moose Cree People and how they live.

Bohdana Chiupka-Innes is a Moose Cree woman and one of the few Indigenous intern architects in so-called Canada. She has dedicated her career to revitalizing her culture and ways of being through her work.

Bohdana is leading the ‘mînawâchihiwewi-ne-wîkiwan’ project alongside her Nation to bring ililiwi-pimâtisîwin back into community housing. The community of Moose Cree is well involved and has been engaged at every stage of this project, including its inception being grounded in the extensive engagement of the Community Comprehensive Plan.

Bohdana’s groundwork for this project was supported through Indigenous Clean Energy’s ImaGENation, a capacity-building program supporting Indigenous youth exploring clean and energy-efficient projects for their communities. This formed the basis of her master’s in architecture thesis from Laurentian University. She has been able to continue realizing her thesis work through her internship with J.L. Richards & Associates Limited (JLR) architecture firm. The Moose Cree First Nation Housing Authority, JLR, Bohdana and the Nation are working in partnership to create the MCFN Housing Prototype.

This first housing prototype was designed to reflect Moose Cree’s traditional structure of cook tents while achieving national Net-Zero Energy standards. It is now going through feasibility studies, modularization standards, and scalability assessments. This is the story of how one youth followed her community’s call to create a path towards living sustainably, with pride, together again.

History of the Moose Cree

Moose Cree People have lived on their traditional homelands for thousands of years in reciprocity with Mother Earth and the beings within her – ililiwi-pimâtisîwin (Cree way of life). Moose Factory Island has always been a gathering place for all families in the summer months.

The process of settler-colonization in Canada came hand in hand with the development of global capital markets. The Moose Cree Peoples and British settlers’ trading relationship led to the Hudson’s Bay Company establishing its second post in Moose Factory in 1673. The lands, waters, and animals that were harmonious in traditional economies were, for the first time, subject to the demands of European capitalism. This supply was only to be made possible by establishing legal practices to gain control over Aboriginally governed lands and resources. The Crown eventually dominated social, property, and land laws by legislating the “Indian Act” in 1876 – the only legislation in Canada that establishes rights and freedoms of an individual race, including property, and forced entire Nations into administrative, economic, and social boundaries of control.

The Moose buildings of the Land Cree remained tied to their homelands, despite residential schools and enforced resource control that occurred before the signing of Treaty 9 in 1905. This resulted in the Canadian government creating two reservations for the Moose Cree people. One of the reservations, 299 hectares in size, is located on Moose Factory Island, called ‘Factory Island 1’, and is where Innes’ Moose Cree First Nation relatives live today. The second, ‘Moose Factory 68’, is 17,094 hectares, and remains undeveloped on the east side of the Moose River 15 km south of Moose Factory Island.

The breakdown of the Moose Cree way of life

The loss of self-government forced Indigenous populations into inadequate housing in tiny reservation boundaries, often in random or unproductive areas that were not reflective of the Nations’ traditional usages. In addition, the designation of British crown lands and public lands allowed for active forms of legalizing land dispossession over traditional productive grounds and limiting traditional activities.

This new situation affected the boundaries of traditional harvesting economies and ways of life, forever changing the experience of quality of life and shelter that communities’ unique practices and knowledges were rich with. Traditional teachings and spiritual foundations of governance were lost, the Moose Cree way of life broken, and intergenerational trauma led to families becoming more and more interdependent on the new Canadian government and colonial way of life.

Canadian government-imposed housing and infrastructure resulted in inadequate environmental design, a lack of investment in quality materials, and a lack of incorporation of cultural-social aspects such as intergenerational living within the Moose Cree First Nation. This situation is prominent across the country as housing in Indigenous communities, due to colonially enforced housing standards, has become famous for influencing a lower standard of living and longevity, factoring health, infrastructural safety, unaffordability, and overcrowding.

The effects of colonization are still occurring today, as the Moose Cree people have suffered for many generations. Having a home that reflects traditional ways and values of life will help ensure that infrastructure meets real needs and is designed for the environment, therefore actualizing sustainable living.

Community Driven, Project-Based Innovation and Solution

Bohdana was supported to do this project through the ImaGENation program at Indigenous Clean Energy. ImaGENation is an Indigenous Clean Energy capacity-building program that supports Indigenous youth-led clean energy projects grounded in kinship, mentorship, and a shared energy future.With support through this program, she researched and designed a prototype net-zero home and housing development plan that responded to and built from her community’s past engagement findings of values, interests, and long-term goals. 

The Moose Cree First Nation Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) is a living document created in 2018 that outlines the Nation’s future vision and strategy. The CCP engaged over 1000 community members through 57 community events. Bohdana Innes envisioned the ‘mînawâchihiwewi-ne-wîkiwan/Healing Our Home: buildings of the Land’ project to incorporate and connect to her Nation’s CCP.

• Okimawiwin (education): the prototype includes a cook tent to share traditional teachings around food sovereignty and a space for intergenerational education
• Milopimatisiwin (health): the cook tent offers family and community nourishment in addition to the environmentally-specific design of the home, which contributes to healthier and safer living
• Uski nesta ka itakwaki uskeek (land and resources): proposing a design that focuses on protecting the Land through Land-based activities to teach traditional harvesting
• Waakoomitowin (social): including appropriate spaces for traditional gatherings to heal and connect back with the community’s traditions, in addition to sizeable rooms designed for larger families
• Eshikeeshowaywin nesta atuskanaysiwin (language and culture): as language and culture allow the community to stay connected to their ancestors, the project creates an opportunity for language and culture teaching programs, in addition to language being embedded into the design and different elements of this project.
• Wâskâhikana nešta Ihtâwinihkewin (housing and infrastructure) – the Housing Design Prototype incorporates the Land and most importantly the Cree way of life.

The process of designing the project involved the community at every stage. Bohdana took a community-led approach, as illustrated in Image 2 below, which begins with understanding the land and history of the people and ensures those values are incorporated throughout the process. By involving every level of the community, from youth to carers to elders, in engagement and with guidance from an informed advisory board, the engagement timeline was enjoyed by feasts, gatherings, feedback discussions, and community governance activities. In this way, the home’s design revolved around community-centered solutions reflecting cultural values and traditional ways of life. The process of input is continued and living as the project gets further into feasibility studies, modularity production, and scalability development.

Bohdana Chiupka-Innes designed a project to bring the Cree way of life to community housing. Photo: Bohdana Chiupka-Innes

Net-Zero Standards: Moose Cree Community Housing Prototype

The prototype house will define a new construction standard for the community and within the Mushkegowuk area. This project was designed to test better building solutions for the environment, and will be moving into construction phases before the next housing development is built in the community.

The Moose Cree Housing Design Prototype incorporates the unique perspectives of Moose Cree People, reflecting their cultural values and traditional way of life. The prototype incorporates social gathering spaces such as the cook tent for traditional cooking and the garage for traditional harvesting activities, as shown in illustration 3. The house designs are adapted to different family sizes with a modular, multi-generational approach. For example, larger houses are accessibly designed to connect to elders’ suites for elders to be close to their families while living independently in extreme winter settings. 

The prototype design considers three different sizes of houses. The first design is a core home with a 2-bedroom unit for couples, singles, or small families that can be expanded as the family grows. The second design is a 3-bedroom unit, an extension of the core home with an additional room. Lastly, the third design is a 4-bedroom unit with an elder’s suite. This unit is designed as two separate spaces connected through a deck and a roof, making it one home. These three designs can be expanded or adapted as the family grows, because additional rooms or an elder’s suite can be added. Also, houses come with a detached garage for hunting and harvesting activities.

The prototype’s design elements integrate natural visual and energy-efficient design. While stylistically lending to the interconnection of the natural environment, it also incorporates energy-efficient design suited for heat fluctuations and weather patterns typically experienced by the northern community. It also incorporates materials from the Land and traditional construction methods, helping upskill the community while using renewable and local materials. 

The prototype house will be designed to Net-Zero Energy standards with passive design solutions to reduce heating and cooling within the home. The currently approved design consists of a single 2500 square-foot house with 4-bedroom units, which is 1900sf, and a kookum’s (grandma) suite at 600sf. The home’s construction includes increased R-values for the building envelope to meet Net-Zero Energy standards, a PV system, an air source heat pump with electrical backup for heating and cooling, a wood stove, an ERV ventilation system, and conventional wood construction.

This home embodies the Moose Cree way of life through its connection with the land, which is connected to all of Mother Earth’s creations. Bringing Moose Cree culture back and designing for the land, this work is not only healing families but also healing communities and the land.

Continued Scope of Work

Alongside her Nation, Bohdana will continue to build out her work in the community to meet housing demands for over 300 families. In the short-medium term, she will lead the carrying out of the following projects:

1. Modularizing the housing prototype for scalability for Moose Cree First Nation is essential to work to ensure affordability and replicability for housing in the community. The construction period for this prototype is May-October due to the community location and logistics. Additionally, this approach can train locals on how to build energy-efficient homes and can increase the local economy, which will create affordable homes.

2. Housing condition assessments of five existing houses and renovating two houses for energy efficiency. This will allow existing homes to be renovated to a more energy-efficient design.  Currently, we have a lot of homes that have unlivable conditions or need minor to major repairs.

3. Community feasibility study for Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE), which is 77 acres on Moose Factory Island. MCFN is anticipating the expansion of the reservation in 5 years.  The community plan will highlight commercial, institutional, residential zones, cultural areas (e.g. outdoor gathering spaces, cultural gathering spaces), and the scalability of the MCFN housing prototype project. The end document will be a feasibility study report. 

Due to the upfront community and land kinship work that Bohdana did, in addition to ongoing community planning led by the Nation, all of these projects are interconnected. This is what in-built sustainability planning and action look like. This approach takes time and demonstrates how time is essential to projects that uphold Indigenous, environmental, and human rights.

Youth-led Modelling Energy Efficient Community Housing Futures

Shelter is a basic need, and in so-called Canada, adequate housing is deemed a fundamental human right. The systems that are in place continue to create barriers and inaccessibility for Indigenous Nations to have housing rights met. As a country, and around the globe, there needs to be more equitable support, effort, and resources for Indigenous housing. Projects like Bohdana’s pave the way for housing projects that go far beyond baseline standards and create lasting and sustainable change for communities.

This is a living, breathing story of what is possible when Indigenous youth and communities are supported to lead and create their own versions of energy sovereignty. It highlights the importance of taking the time to ground the work in community, ceremony, and the land before, during, and after a clean energy project. This type of approach is inherently connected to the upholding of relational responsibilities, which ensure greater longevity for housing and infrastructure for future generations. Not only is this an example of a project with incredible impact, but it is also one that shows what is possible when communities are at the heart of their homes.

Bohdana Chiupka-Innes is a graduate of the McEwen School of Architecture at Laurentian University and is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, Mushkegowuk Territory. She currently lives in Ottawa on the Unceded Traditional Territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people and is an Architect Trainee with J.L. Richards & Associates Limited (JLR).

Tags: Indigenous Debates