© William Semple, 2020 ABSTRACT

DECOLONIZING ARCHITECTURE: STORIES FROM THE CANADIAN NORTH by William Semple A thesis submitted in partial fulfllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Human Ecology University of Alberta © William Semple, 2020 ABSTRACT This is the story of nearly thirty years of my work where I aimed to support the creation of culturally appropriate architecture and the promotion of sustainable building practices. Much of this work was directed towards the development of culturally appropriate, energy efcient housing in the Canadian north, carried out in collaboration and direct consultation with Indigenous communities. My story is entangled with the stories of fve northern communities in Canada, one northern community in the USA, and a Tibetan refugee community in India. This story is written as a self-refection that is deeply personal and is intend- ed to lead towards better understandings of the processes of creating housing with communities through something I call ‘decolonizing architecture’. My story is a kind of auto-ethnography, written from the per- spectives of white privilege, human ecology, and architectural design. This work takes a practice-based approach where, as a son within an immigrant family, an advocate, a builder, an architect, and a person who lives within Canadian society, I refect upon my own practices. To make sense of my story I refect upon typical Western ways of practicing architecture and turn to the principles used and promoted by Indigenous scholars when working in their own communities to advance ideas on how architecture can be practiced diferently. The decolonized approach I propose is partially a response to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, but also a means to de-centering euro-western ways that architects typically use. Decolonizing architecture means remov- ing the euro-western biases and architectural design practices/processes that dominate the design of buildings in Northern Canada. It aims towards creating culturally appropriate buildings and settlements by working with Indigenous people that live in these communities, while shifting the attitudes/beliefs of practitioners who are from outside these communities. The decolonizing architectural process I describe illustrates seven core values learned from my own work and include: establishing the architects location, the building of relationships (including the relationship to the land), embracing alternative ways of knowing, listening to stories, making diferently, seeing Indige- nous spirituality as an integral part of all things, and using our ‘agency’ for the beneft of Indigenous communities. The chapters of this thesis detail the seven values which are presented as a series of vignettes’ with the aim of encouraging architects to embrace and slow down the collaborative creating process so that it is more mindful and honours the people who need to live, for many generations, with the archi- ii tecture that is produced. My hope is that my story will aid future architectural designers working in the Canadian North, as well as those working with Indigenous cultures in other parts of the world, to embrace approaches and processes that bring the voices and practices of the Indigenous peoples to the forefront of architectural design. iii PREFACE I was honoured to be invited and participate in ceremonies with vari- ous Indigenous communities throughout my work on Community-led collaborative projects that were attempting to decolonize architecture, a signifcant act that I hoped was validation of my participatory design methods and cooperative practice. In one of the ceremonies I attended I was further honoured with a spirit name, a signifcant act that I hoped was validation of my participatory design methods and cooperative practice. These ceremonies have shaped me as an architect and are integral to the work I do. They have fostered in me the belief that the process of creating architecture needs to understand and incorporate ritual and ceremony and the understanding that these are an integral part of ‘culture’ and when removed or ignored, leave something that is quite incomplete. This needs to be understood by my profession and can only be achieved through gaining the trust of a community while working with them to achieve a common goal. However, in order to respect the rights and practices of my community partners, to engage in ethical practice, and to avoid exploitation, cultural appropriation and epistemic habits of researchers and practitioners who come from outside indigenous communities, these ceremonial practices must remain between me and the people I worked with. These can only be told by Indigenous people themselves as alone they can ensure the validity of what is being told and it is only, they who can determine to whom these stories should be shared. Understanding and experiencing ceremony has been a fundamental aspect of my experience working as an architect in Indigenous communities and to developing the understanding that architecture is a temporal experience as much as a spatial or aesthetic one. From this perspective, it becomes important that architects who work in Indigenous communities take the time to foster these experiences, to attend festivals and rituals when invited, and to make room for unprogrammed time where the building of relationships and trust can occur. It raises the question as to whether commercial practices that do not have time for these experien- tial activities should leave this to those who can. It also is a challenge to the notion of ‘settler privilege’, that we as present-day architects and the descendants of the conquering settlers are somehow not responsible for the plight of Indigenous people today, as we were not there and did not participate in these actions.1 iv It is important to note that I have chosen to write about Tibetan building 1 Dina Gilio-Whitaker, rituals as I have participated in these rituals as the designer of buildings “Settler Fragility: Why Settler Privilege Is So Hard to Talk for the community where my involvement in the rituals was integral to the About”, Accessed April 2, 2020, process. Previous writing that I have carried out on this topic is already https://www.beaconbroadside. com/broadside/2018/11/settler- in the public domain and had the full permission and support of the Tibet- fragility-why-settler-privilege-is- an community in exile.2 so-hard-to-talk-about.html 2 Semple, Symbolism and Ritual in Tibetan Architecture, Cho Yang: The Voice of Tibet- an Religion and Culture v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The architecture projects and the research that are explored in this thesis were carried out over a period of several decades and required the assistance of many people. To begin I would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance provided by my thesis supervisors Gavin Renwick and Megan Strickfaden. This thesis would not have been developed without the guidance of Dr. Renwick who encouraged me to carry out this PhD, to refect deeply upon my work and to use this as a forum for sharing my work with others. I would also like to give particular heartfelt thanks to Dr. Strickfaden who provided valuable and insightful input throughout the process and skillfully assisted me with addressing the trials and tribulations of com- pleting a PhD. I would also like to thank the other members of my PhD committee. In particular I must acknowledge Indigenous scholar Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson who, through her course on Indigenous Research Method- ologies, revealed many insights with regard to the responsibilities of carrying out projects in Indigenous communities. I would also like to thank Dr. Siomonn Pulla of Royal Roads University for his valuable insights and who put forward the term ‘scholar practitioner’ to describe my place within the academic community. I would also like to thank Dr. Cathy Adams for being part of the examining committee and Dr. Janet Fast for chairing my oral defence. Generous assistance was also provided by many people in the Indigenous and Tibetan communities where I have had the honour and great privilege of carrying out the research and design work that forms the basis of this thesis. While this thesis explores projects that were carried out in several First Nations and Inuit communities, I would particularly like to acknowledge the people of the Cree Nation of Eastmain and the kindness and generosity that they extended to me. I give a special nod to Stanley Gilpin, the Housing Director who shared many aspects of Cree culture, invited me to many community events and introduced me to many people in the community, and to Mark Tivnan, the Director General, for his leader- ship during the development of the submission for the Smart City Challenge. Over a period of decades, generosity and support has also been extended to me by many people in the Tibetan community in India. In my early work, it is essential that I acknowledge Rinchen Khandro for her valuable insights on Tibetan society and the community of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, and her husband Tenzin Choegyal, the youngest brother of the Dalai Lama, with whom I had many engaging conversations on Tibetan Buddhism. More recently, I would like to acknowledge the guidance, support and friendship of Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche. While many others have assisted me along this journey, I would be remiss if I also did not mention the assistance of Tibetan scholar and building designer Geshe Getun Sandup and architect Karma Yeshe. Lastly, I would like to like to acknowledge the Dalai Lama who honoured me with an audience, sharing with me his perspective on the innate connection that he sees between Tibetan and Indigenous peoples. I thank my spouse, Pam Wiggin, for her patience and support as I went through the daily challenges of undertaking a PhD, and to my daughter Keara who inspires me daily with her kindness and generosity.

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