Join the National Capital Commission (NCC) for an insightful and thought-provoking event that will focus on the future of Indigenous design in architecture in Canada. We will feature leaders in the Canadian design community. It will also be an opportunity to share the NCC’s work with local Indigenous communities as they collaborate on projects such as Kìwekì Point and explore precedents and practices from other jurisdictions.
Speakers:
Eladia Smoke, Principal Architect and Founder
M. Arch | OAA | OAQ | MAA | FRAIC | LEED®AP
Smoke Architecture Inc.
KaaSheGaaBaaWeak | Eladia Smoke is Anishinaabekwe from Obishikokaang | Lac Seul First Nation, with family roots in Alderville First Nation, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Eladia has worked in architecture since 2002 and founded Smoke Architecture as principal architect in 2014. She is the first Anishinabekwe architect in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, as well as the third Indigenous woman licensed as an architect in Canada. She taught as a Master Lecturer at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture from 2016 to 2022. She serves as a founding member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Indigenous Task Force. Eladia represented Canada at the 2018 Venice Biennale Unceded exhibition as part of an international team of Indigenous designers and architects. Her current professional work includes community-based and institutional projects as she works alongside Indigenous stakeholders, collaborates with First Nation communities, and listens closely to Elders.
Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller, M.A., Ph.D, Associate Professor
School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University
Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller (Kahente means “she walks ahead”) (Kanien:keha’ka/Mohawk) is a 2023 National 3M Teaching Fellow and currently the Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Teaching, Learning and Research at Carleton University.
Dr. Horn-Miller’s research and teaching is centred in the development of Haudenosaunee-specific research and pedagogical practices. Her research interests include Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous women, identity politics, colonization, Indigenous governance, and consensus-based decision-making. Her governance work and community-based research involves interpreting Haudenosaunee culture and bringing new life to old traditions. Her performance piece We are Her and She is Us is a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee story of creation that centres on Sky Woman and her fall to earth.
She co-chaired the Carleton University Strategic Indigenous Initiatives Committee, which resulted in Kinàmàgawin, Carleton’s revitalized Indigenous strategy. In 2018, she initiated the award-winning Collaborative Indigenous Learning Bundles project, which is successfully increasing Indigenous content in classrooms across disciplines. Dr. Horn-Miller received her doctorate in 2009.
Bret Cardinal, B. Arch, First Nation Designer
Studio C Architects
Bret Cardinal is a Métis/Blackfoot First Nations designer with over 40 years of experience in all aspects of architectural design through implementation. He has been intimately involved in many high-profile First Nations projects, including the Canadian Museum of History, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, while working with his father Douglas Cardinal for 25 years.
For the last 10 years he has worked in partnership with Studio C Architects, where he is the lead designer on their most current First Nations projects. His responsibilities include leading the team in design, vision and consultation sessions, master planning, interior design, contract documents preparation and landscape design. Bret also sits on the Wabano board of directors and offers his time to Carleton University as an outside critic for yearly student reviews.