1st Edition
Decolonising and Indigenising Design Theory, Methodologies, Storytelling, and Creative Practice
This book offers a new approach to design theory and practice that draws on Indigenous knowledges, methodologies and methods, presenting concepts of decolonising and Indigenous design that are interweaved as theory, storytelling, and practices.
The arena of design sustainability, social design, and innovation has been a site of debate since the 1960s. Yet, the ways in which design has redefined this complex realm has not directly addressed Indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing, which could be of paramount importance to the transformation of the design field and beyond in creative practices. In response, this book offers valuable insights into how design practitioners can incorporate Indigenous practices to decolonise education, research, and design, and dismantle colonised paradigms, ways of thinking and practice in design. This approach is presented through storytelling, theory, methodology, methods, and practical examples to enlighten the reader. The book proposes a transformation in the role designers play, through understanding relationality between people, land, and the immaterial, while giving voice and agency to the land and waters, Our Mother Earth. Design is considered as a way to harness opportunities through the deep connection between people and Place, and the book critically promotes a more contextual and dynamic understanding of decolonising and Indigenising design practices and spaces through relational design.
This book will be useful for students and scholars studying in the fields of design, art, architecture, culture, decolonising methodologies, biocultural diversity, and design beyond human and materiality.
Part 1: Ways of being
1. My journey: Navigating cultural identity and engaging with this book
2. Indigenous worldviews, cosmology, and knowledges
3. Indigenous design: Indigenous-led design practice, Country/Mother Earth and relational-centred design
Part 2: Ways of knowing and doing
4. Decolonising design practice: Indigenous led in partnership with respectful non-Indigenous people and allies
5. Critical co-design, guidelines, and Biocultural Workshop
6. Biocultural Workshop case study
7. Indigenous design practices
Part 3: Ways of (co)becoming
8. Relational design: A way of being, knowing, doing, and (co)becoming
Afterword: My learning journey and my way of becoming
Biography
Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga is a Mexican woman with Nahua, Mayan, Basque, and Spanish heritage. Desiree is a creative practitioner, collaborative, and social design maker and thinker. She is a Senior Lecturer at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, part of the Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab cohort, and Coordinator for Indigenous Higher Degrees by Research. She has over 14 years of experience in the design field across diverse disciplines, such as sustainability, co-design, social, furniture, interior, decolonial, and Indigenous design. Desiree’s work focuses on better ways of partnership and communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through design, by recognising the relationality between people and Place while privileging Indigenous knowledges.
“In Decolonising and Indigenising Design, Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga lays out both the theorical foundations and the practical applications of two different but intersecting design projects: (1) decolonising design as the dismantling of European-derived hierarchies and biases in making and the deepening of relationality to land and culture, which ought be practiced by all; and (2) Indigenising design as design for, by, and benefiting Indigenous peoples for the cultural (re)vitalization of languages, practices, and relationships as the land for present/future generations.”
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, author of Decolonizing Design: a Cultural Justice Guidebook and founder, Dori Tunstall, Inc.
