Seminar: Indigenous Housing Projects In Canada & NZ

Visiting PhD student Karine Perrault will discuss her research into the effects on Indigenous people’s health of improving the quality of their housing. In 2014-2015, over 400 social housing units were constructed in selected communities in Nunavik and Nunavut, two Inuit regions in northern Canada where housing shortages and poor quality housing undermine population health.

Karine will present the results of a before-and-after study examining the effects of rehousing on health and well-being. The study was developed according to an integrated knowledge translation approach, in partnership with Nunavut and Nunavik-based organisations.

Cheryl Davies will speak about He Tipu Manahau, a papakāinga housing project. This project is a partnership in planning between Wainuiomata Marae and Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing NZ), energy providers and He Kāinga Oranga (the Housing and Health Research Programme, University of Otago, Wellington) to create a sustainable housing development based around the marae to provide warm and healthy homes for the local community. It will incorporate a smart renewable energy microgrid to supply affordable power to residents.

Speakers:
Karine Perreault is a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Montreal. Her thesis focuses on the mental health impacts of recent public investments in social housing in twelve Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. It also explores how the experience of being rehoused affected the lives of Inuit families and how housing could be further improved to better fit Inuit aspirations and ways of living.

Karine holds a 3-year Doctoral Research Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Priority Announcement: Research in First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit. She is co-supervised by Prof. Mylène Riva (McGill University), and Prof. Louise Potvin (Université de Montréal). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karine-perreault-13b724a3/

Cheryl Davies, Ko Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti WehiWehi, Ngāti Mutunga o te Wharekauri oku iwi. Cheryl has managed the Tu Kotahi Māori Asthma and Research Trust over the past 23 years. Tu Kotahi was formed as the first Māori Asthma Society in New Zealand in the early 1990s.

Tu Kotahi is also a member of the Tākiri Mai te Ata Whānau Ora Collective based in the Hutt Valley, comprising several Māori Health Providers, marae and GP Centres. Cheryl has worked alongside the University of Otago on a number of key research studies involving Māori communities over the past 20 years.