Nokom's House: Creating Space for Research in Good Relation - REGULAR

Nokom's House: Creating Space for Research in Good Relation 

This webinar was part of the RAIC 2021 Virtual Conference on Architecture and the RAIC Internation and Indigenous Architecture and Design Symposium

Topics: Indigenous Design, Indigenous Voices

Length: 1 hour | What's Included: Video, Quiz, and Certificate of Completion 

This webinar is available to stream! 

Making Room for New Indigenous Voices on the Leading Edge of Architecture Practice

Alongside Indigenization efforts, many post-secondary institutions have designated spaces, such as student resource centres, that offer support to Indigenous students and faculty. However, there remain few spaces designed for and dedicated to Indigenous scholarship and research endeavours. Nokom’s House, a proposed purpose-built Indigenous research space, will be one of the first of its kind within a Canadian post-secondary institution. 

Nokom’s House is a land-based research lab that brings together three community-engaged Indigenous scholars at the University of Guelph: Dr. Kim Anderson (Métis), Dr. Sheri Longboat (Haudenosaunee), and Dr. Brittany Luby (Anishinaabe). The sustainably designed “granny’s cabin,” to be built on the University of Guelph campus, will provide a hub for these researchers, their students, and community partners to explore decolonial learning, planning, and community development in close relationship to land, water, plants, and animals. A communal table and kitchen will rest at the heart of the space, accommodating Indigenous “kitchen-table” methodologies, land-based activities, and ceremony. 

From the perspective of the end-users of the space –(the researchers), this session presentation reflects on the collaborative process of working with architects and community stakeholders to create a land-based Indigenous research space within a predominantly Euro-centric post-secondary institution and the importance of purpose-designed spaces that engage Indigenous perspectives at all stages of realization. The session presentation will offer lessons-learned for other institutions, designers, and educators committed to making space for Indigenous-led research.

Subject Matter Experts

Amina Lalor, MArch, BAS Honours / Research Coordinator, University of Guelph

Sheri Longboat, BES, MA, BEd, PhD / Associate Professor, University of Guelph