THUNDER BAY — Danno Moose travels to Thunder Bay every year to compete in the First Nation Housing Conference builder's challenge.
The Poplar Hill First Nation member was one of many Indigenous youth who took part in the challenge at the Valhalla Inn on Wednesday.
“I've been coming here for, I don't know how long now, but it's my second win. I won two years ago,” he said.
Moose said the challenge he participated in was about trimming and flooring vinyl.
Coming back every year gives Moose ideas about carpentry.
“Because you see a lot of mould back home, I'm trying to learn everything about mould in there,” he said.
This experience has allowed Moose to bring the knowledge back to his remote community, which is only accessible by plane or ice road.
Jon Eakes, expert in home renovations, was the instructor for all of the builder’s challenges.
“This competition we've had every year for the last 10 to 12 years at the conference. Its objective is, on one hand, a little bit of entertainment for everybody. Although I've done a lot of entertainment, I actually want people to go away saying ‘I learned something,’ and every session I have professionals who come up and say they didn’t know one little detail, one little trick.”
There were 14 students from three high schools who attended a session on Tuesday that would prime them for Wednesday, Eakes said.
“They came in with a cheater advantage and then they teamed up with somebody from the conference. That was a new experience and what I was delighted to see happen in some of the cases, is the student took the lead and were teaching the other person, because they actually had a sense of what we were doing from yesterday,” he added
Clarence Meekis, public works manager at Keewaytinook Okimakianak Council, said the theme of this year's three-day conference is exploring challenges and empowering sustainability.
“There's always challenges for communities and providing healthy housing. We need our housing to be sustainable, the programs, the houses themselves to last decades into the future,” he said.
Meekis said it’s important for communities to gather together in person, because there is no cookie-cutter approach for every community.
“If we don't get together and dialogue and learn together, how do we know the differences, how do we know those gaps and challenges. Our goal here is to connect all those people, government stakeholders, suppliers, we have a trade show happening today with over 70 exhibitors. That's the largest ever at this event. We have over 300 signed up delegates,” Meekis said.
Meekis said it's important to ask how can we connect community members with opportunities for success and to build their housing programs.
