Storying Design Practice with Five Indigenous Design Paradigms

How can design teaching and the design professions decolonize design practice and create a reciprocal praxis for both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous practitioners, students, and scholars? This is a question, as both Indigenous and settler scholars, we have begun to address through the development of a new methodological praxis with guiding paradigms. By embracing the concept of Anishinaabemowen, Gimiigiwemin, “we are exchanging gifts,” we prioritize listening to the land to ensure that our process considers place more thoroughly. This process-based design approach is intended to contribute to help guide both academic and professional design practices to engage more meaningfully with an expanded world view that prioritizes creating meaningful connections to the land. The Five Decolonizing Design Paradigms are rooted in land-based teaching initiatives through the Faculty of Architecture. These paradigms are ever developing, and are shared here through stories of projects that are guided through the teachings of: Danakamigad: it takes place, happens in a certain place; Andotan: listen for it and wait to hear it; Bawaajigan; a dream, a vision; Meshkwad: in turn, in exchange; and Naagotoon: make it show, reveal it. The intention of these paradigms and these experiences is that they may contribute to a path forward for the design disciplines as we collectively work towards truth and reconciliation.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.112.53

Volume Editors
Germane Barnes & Blair Satterfield

ISBN
978-1-944214-45-6