New International Webinar Series on Indigenising Design Launching this November

Bringing together designers, academics and changemakers from around the globe, Indigenising Design is a new 10-month long pan-continent webinar series launching this November, exploring the possibilities beyond a colonised design system.

The series has been devised through a collaboration between IDIA (Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa), the British Council for Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, Arts and Culture University of Exeter, and design agency Concurrency.

Indigenising Design aims to bring together like-minded individuals from across the globe to discuss, unpack and explore the ways in which our world is designed. It celebrates indigeneity and the identities, customs, stories, and practices that make our indigenous communities unique.

The first online webinar of the series will focus on Indigenising Physical Spaces and will be co-hosted by Dr Johnson Witehira and Keita Twist. Johnson is a leading Māori innovator working across art, design, technology, and game development, and is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for IDIA. Twist is an experienced service design, co-design and community engagement practitioner, who is Director and Strategist for IDIA.

Keita said “For IDIA, the opportunity to host the Indigenising Design webinar series was one we couldn’t pass up. Creating space for conversation and exploration of indigenous design practices is a subject we are passionate about. We believe conversations are the starting point for us to collectively, globally realize the opportunities we have to see more of ourselves in the world around us, through the design of our cities and buildings, the services provided by our local business and products we buy. We are hugely excited to be involved and humbled to be invited to create a safe space for these important and impactful conversations to flow.”

Joining Johnson and Keita as panellists are:

• Sandeep Virmani, an architect and Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Hunnarshala Foundation. For over three decades, Sandeep has been living and working with indigenous communities in Kutch, India. An environmentalist at heart, he has trained as an architect and worked with communities all over India, building with natural materials and revitalizing their traditional building crafts.
• Stella Mutegi, an architect and Co-Founder and Director of Cave_bureau, a Nairobi based bureau of architects and researchers charting explorations into architecture and urbanism within nature. A Kenyan qualified architect since 2009, Stella has worked at Symbion Kenya, Dimensions Architects, and Interior Designers in Kenya. Stella studied at the University of Newcastle in Australia, where she completed her architectural education, before returning back home to Kenya.
• Dr Rebecca (Becky) Kiddle, Director of Te Manawahoukura in Aotearoa New Zealand. With training in urban design (MA and PhD from Oxford Brookes University, UK), her work focuses on Indigeneity in an urban context and in particular the uncovering of Indigenous identities, worldviews and value sets in homes, streets, public spaces, towns and cities.

Natasha Beckman, Country Director British Council New Zealand and the Pacific, said: “We are thrilled to see the Indigenising Design webinar series unite global voices. The extraordinary response reflects a deep appetite for conversations about indigenising design practices. The British Council’s international network has enabled us to connect Indigenous voices across continents, from Aotearoa New Zealand to communities worldwide. This programme uniquely embodies reciprocity – bringing together Indigenous wisdom and contemporary design to shape more equitable futures. These cultural connections are central to the British Council’s mission, and we look forward to seeing how these conversations will transform design practice globally.”

Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts and Culture at the University of Exeter, added “I was born in Aotearoa New Zealand, of Scottish ancestry, and moved to the UK in 2000. Consequently, this project has a very special resonance for me. The world of design has been dominated by Western practices, carrying an inherent bias and limiting the creative scope of design solutions. It has been so exciting to be part of this project team, bringing the themes and panellists together to create the programme, Indigenising Design. Even more exciting, I can’t wait to be a member of the audience.”

Indigenising Physical Spaces is the first webinar in a six-part series running into 2025. It is free to attend and open to those interested in indigenous design and indigenous design practices. The webinar will take place on Microsoft Teams Live on 19th November and will run at the following times: 07:00 – London, 10:00 – Nairobi, 12:30 – New Delhi, and 20:00 – Wellington.

Each webinar will be recorded and added to the Indigenising Design website, to form a repository of shared learning and practice for Indigenous communities and designers, as well as those practitioners who are interested in supporting, uplifting and enhancing Indigenous approaches.

You can sign-up to the Indigenising mailing list to receive updates on upcoming webinars and resources.