OUR CIRCLES / PROJECTS
Decolonizing Design and Innovation
Through lectures and collaborations with universities and student communities, we explore how decolonizing design and innovation can support climate justice, value Indigenous knowledge and nurture more reciprocal relationships with the living world.
In collaboration with:
the Story
Rethinking design and innovation through ancestral knowledge
What if design and innovation began not with the promise of progress, growth and technological solutions, but with an understanding of our relationships with people, ancestors and the living world? Dominant approaches to design and innovation are shaped by colonial histories, often privileging Western knowledge while overlooking Indigenous worldviews and practices that offer alternative ways of living and creating.
Through invited lectures at TU Eindhoven and in collaboration with C4SI in Geneva, we opened up conversations about these assumptions and explored what it could mean to decolonize the way we design, research and innovate. Drawing on Design Reparations’ work with Indigenous communities and our collaboration with WarīNkwī Flores of Kinray Hub, we invited students to question established ideas of progress, recognize the knowledge that has been marginalized, and imagine approaches grounded in reciprocity, ecological responsibility and climate justice.
How we gathered
Decolonizing design at TU Eindhoven
In February 2025, we contributed a decolonial perspective to Ethics in the Minor Key, a workshop at TU Eindhoven focused on values-led artistic research, complexity, climate justice and more-than-human perspectives. The lecture explored how colonial assumptions continue to shape design practices, from the celebration of individual creative genius to extractive relationships with people and the planet. We invited participants to question whose knowledge counts, whose interests design serves, and how we might learn from Indigenous worldviews to develop more relational and ecologically responsible practices.
Decolonizing innovation with C4SI
In November 2025, we joined C4SI, a student-led initiative in Geneva that brings together graduate students from different disciplines to develop social innovations addressing real-world challenges. In collaboration with WarīNkwī Flores of Kinray Hub, we explored how colonial thinking influences research, development and innovation. The session combined critical reflection with examples of Indigenous knowledge and practices, including community-led approaches to architecture, healthcare, ecological relationships and collective responsibility. Through reflection and group discussion, students were invited to reconsider conventional definitions of innovation and explore alternatives rooted in ancestral knowledge and reciprocity.
join us
Do you want to support?
We welcome invitations from universities, student collectives and organizations interested in exploring decolonizing design, innovation and research. Get in touch if you would like to host a lecture or develop a conversation with us and our collaborators.
