The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1 - 56

Michelle Pidgeon * Chris Rogerson

ways. Enacted daily or on occasion smudging
ceremonies involve the ceremonial use of
smoke from medicinal plants. (p. 118)
An alternative culturally relevant housing
model would be units that enable communal gathering, shared meals, and spaces for
cultural practices, which would encourage
family-like support structures that honor the
wholistic needs of First Nations, Métis, Inuit,
and Native American students (Ecklund & Terrance, 2013; Minthorn, 2014; Wallace et al.,
2004). Hospitality is an important part of cultural responsibilities within many Aboriginal
and Indigenous communities, and housing
staff should operate with cultural sensitivity
when addressing issues of on-campus accommodations for guests of Aboriginal students
(Ecklund & Terrance, 2013; Pidgeon, 2016b).
Aboriginal students living in an urban context
expect that their housing can be a welcoming space for hosting visiting extended family
members who provide important cultural and
emotional support for them (HeavyRunner &
DeCelles, 2002).

METHOD
We used an Indigenous Wholistic Framework to guide this project in order to promote
culturally responsible and ethical practices
and also to value and center the perspectives of its Aboriginal participants (Kovach,
2009; Pidgeon & Hardy Cox, 2002; Smith,
2012; Wilson, 2008). Since many Aboriginal
students choose to live off campus, the experiences of both those who live on and off
campus are important to understanding the
role of housing in their retention and success.
Our study involved the analysis of secondary
data from two data sources: the Aboriginal
Housing Research Project (AHRP) carried out
56

in British Columbia (Archibald et al., 2004)
and the Association of College & University
Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I)/
Educational Benchmarking, Inc. (EBI)-Canadian Resident Assessment (CRA) data aggregate results for an anonymous Canadian
university from the years 2007, 2009, and
2011. In addition to these data sets, we conducted an analysis of the publicly available
Aboriginal student housing policies of public
postsecondary institutions in Western Canada:
British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), and Saskatchewan (SK). We analyzed all three data
sources using emergent coding and descriptive statistics from the Indigenous Wholistic
Framework.
Dr. Pidgeon was a co-investigator in the
AHRP, which was a research partnership of
six BC postsecondary institutions (universities and colleges) from 2003 to 2004 that
examined Aboriginal student housing, both
on and off campus, including Native housing.
Native housing is social housing subsidized for
Aboriginal peoples; it is run by non-profit organizations and often includes family support,
cultural programming, and other support resources (BC Housing, 2017). The AHRP followed Indigenous research methodologies,
and its investigators collected data through a
student survey, sharing circles with Aboriginal students, and interviews with Aboriginal
student service providers and Native housing.
A sharing circle is a culturally appropriate focus
group that follows an Indigenous protocol that
honors a principle of respect, so what is said
in the circle stays in the circle; participants
were given a small culturally appropriate gift
for sharing their knowledge. During a sharing
circle, a rock or other appropriate item is

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1

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