ABSTRACT
‘Modern’ design research is situated in and emerged from a specific worldview, which it still echoes. This has implications when we design with groups who hold other worldviews, such as Indigenous communities. It can, for example, affect colonial power structures of dependency as well as be colonising by imposing worldviews and prescribing solutions and methods. If we consider ‘modern’ design as just a specific type of design, among other ways, we could follow a pluriversal understanding of design. In order to meet respectfully in a pluriverse, there is a need to collaborate and to hand-over control to the community. One way of thinking about design in a pluriverse could be to think through an Indigenous knowledge approach to design, in which we respectfully show care and awareness in how we identify, explore and assess meaning – acknowledging that our view is always incomplete. In the project described in this chapter, the author has attempted to take up such a respectful approach to design, which required a re-learning of what it means to be a designer/researcher. She goes into the project, the different designs that evolved from it and examines whether, and how those designs were designed through a respectful design approach.
