New Indigenous-led women's shelter aims to provide 'an auntie's love'

A domestic violence survivor is preparing to open the first Indigenous-led women's shelter in Edmonton. 

Nichole Brown, who is Cree and Saulteaux from Louis Bull Tribe, has been planning to open the second stage shelter since 2022 and is now in the process of looking for a location for Helen Hazel House.

Helen Hazel House will be a non-profit offering transitional housing for women and their children who need a medium-term place to stay while they recover from domestic violence. 

All the leadership roles, including the board of directors, will be held by Indigenous women, Brown said, "because of the numbers of Indigenous women that are impacted by intimate partner violence or even gender-based violence."

She said the need for Indigenous-centred projects in the city is significant. Edmonton has the second-largest Indigenous population of any urban centre in the country and according to an annual report from the Wings of Providence, one of only two second stage shelters in Edmonton, over 28 per cent of all people they served were Indigenous — the largest of any demographic group. 

Cat Champagne, executive director of the Alberta Council of Women Shelters, estimated at least 60 per cent of women in shelters across the province are Indigenous.

"Having these specific spaces that are really safe, that are culturally relevant, that have the proper cultural support is huge," she said.

But having more shelter spaces overall is also important, said Champagne.

"Right now our biggest barrier for everyone is the lack of safe and affordable housing, so we're seeing women stay in shelter obviously way longer than we ever have before," she said. 

This means there's an increased need for second stage shelters in the province since survivors cannot afford to move out of the shelters and into permanent housing, she said.

An auntie's love

Helen Hazel House is named after Brown's aunt, who often provided a place of refuge when Brown was growing up. 

"She was a very great role model [and] very helpful to my mother being a domestic violence survivor," she said. 

"She always gave us a safe home, that love, that place we needed to go when you were in Edmonton."

Brown said she debated giving the shelter an Indigenous name but instead settled on naming it after her late aunt. 

"I thought about if I was going to contribute anything… the kind of love that I want to offer these women is an auntie's love."

In addition to honouring her aunt's legacy, Brown said her personal experience with shelters in the city led her to this path. Like many survivors, she became homeless after escaping multiple violent relationships.

Eventually, she went to a second stage shelter but struggled there. 

"I ended up getting kicked out while my abuser was at large," she said.

She said greater understanding of the intergenerational trauma she was dealing with as a descendant of residential school survivors would have helped.  

"These shelters have been doing a really good job keeping women safe," Brown said. 

"It's just that when you go into there, it's not by Indigenous women and I think to myself, do they understand me?"

While Helen Hazel House will be Indigenous-led, Brown said it will serve all women and adjust to whatever circumstances arise.