(Re)building first Nations community economies: From forest to frame

Abstract

This paper uses the example of First Nations housing in British Columbia to explore how culturally legitimate community economies are being advanced to overcome the deficiencies of top-down, state-led housing efforts and market relations. Through the lens of the diverse economy, we highlight how First Nations community institutions can and do serve to oversee the utilization of territorial forest resources for the production and distribution of housing materials locally. The findings point towards First Nations communities navigating (often in latent ways) complex sites of decision-making through: ethical negotiations related to (de)commoditization; needs and surplus evaluation; and transactions and rules of (in) commensurability. While these examples appear to challenge the conventional logics of capitalist-market institutions, First Nations communities also must contend with the many structural barricades to change that exist within the settler-colonial institutional framework.