Several Travois staff members and I had the pleasure of attending the World Indigenous Housing Conference last week in Vancouver, British Columbia, where we had the opportunity to share our experience in Indian Country and learn about affordable housing for Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
According to the conference sponsors, more than 800 delegates attended the four-day conference. We met Aboriginal peoples from Australia and Maori peoples from New Zealand and heard from several First Nations chiefs and elected officials from all three countries. We discussed the challenges common to Indigenous people across the world and learned of the different social, political and legal situations for each individual group.
The conference hosted several evening entertainment options, and we especially enjoyed the traditional Haka dance by the Maori representatives and hearing Gurrumul, a well-known Australian Aboriginal singer.
We were honored to help sponsor the conference and look forward to learning more about affordable housing across the world in future years. We were lucky enough to meet Mike Holmes from HGTV, the conference keynote speaker!