Short answer
Designers must adopt a decolonial lens, actively questioning their positionality and the potential impact of their research on Indigenous communities, ensuring that projects empower rather than exploit.
- Field
- Innovation & Design
- Source
- Academic Publication (2021)
- Method
- Reflexive analysis of research engagements and literature review
- Evidence
- Strong effect
Design research in Indigenous contexts, particularly in the North, must move beyond acknowledging historical colonialism to actively deconstruct its ongoing influence on local food systems and research practices. This innovation & design research insight is drawn from a 2021 study published in Academic Publication. Using Reflexive analysis of research engagements and literature review, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Designers must adopt a decolonial lens, actively questioning their positionality and the potential impact of their research on Indigenous communities, ensuring that projects empower rather than exploit.
Research Design Must Actively Disrupt Colonial Legacies in Northern Food Systems
Design research in Indigenous contexts, particularly in the North, must move beyond acknowledging historical colonialism to actively deconstruct its ongoing influence on local food systems and research practices.
Academic Publication · 2021
Key Findings
- 01Food system challenges in the Northwest Territories are deeply intertwined with ongoing settler colonial processes.
- 02Research in Northern contexts often acknowledges historical colonialism but fails to address its present-day impacts and how research itself can uphold these structures.
- 03Southern-based researchers have a responsibility to critically examine and disrupt colonial narratives about the North perpetuated through their work.
Application
Design takeaway
Designers must adopt a decolonial lens, actively questioning their positionality and the potential impact of their research on Indigenous communities, ensuring that projects empower rather than exploit.
How to apply
Before initiating any design project in an Indigenous community, conduct a thorough assessment of potential colonial impacts and engage in genuine partnership with community members to co-create research objectives and methodologies.
Project actions
- 01When researching Indigenous communities, always start by asking how your project aligns with their goals and priorities.
- 02Be prepared to critically analyze your own biases and assumptions as a researcher or designer.
- 03Consider how your design choices might reinforce or challenge existing power structures.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Highlights the critical importance of reflexivity in research.
- +Addresses a significant ethical gap in research conducted in Indigenous contexts.
Limitations
It can be challenging to fully understand and address complex historical and ongoing colonial issues without deep, long-term engagement and expertise in Indigenous studies.
Reliability & validity
The reliability and validity of this study are primarily based on the researcher's rigorous self-reflection and the coherence of their arguments, rather than empirical data collection from a large sample.
Think critically
How can a design project, even with good intentions, inadvertently perpetuate colonial legacies, and what specific steps can a designer take to actively counteract this?
Design Principles
"Decolonial Design Practice: Research and design interventions in Indigenous territories must actively identify and dismantle colonial structures, centering Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems."
Designers and researchers working in or with Indigenous communities need to be critically aware of how their projects can inadvertently perpetuate colonial power structures. This requires a reflexive approach that questions existing narratives and prioritizes community-led initiatives over externally imposed solutions.
What This Means for Your Design
When you do design research in places like the North, especially with Indigenous people, you can't just say colonialism happened a long time ago. You have to think about how it's still affecting things now, and how your own research might be making it worse. You need to be really honest with yourself about your role and try to help fix the problems, not create new ones.
How to use in your project
- 1.Reference this research when discussing the ethical considerations of your design project, particularly if it involves working with or for Indigenous communities.
- 2.Use the concept of decolonial design to inform your methodology and justify your approach to user research.
Add to My Project
Quick Cite
Paragraph starter
This research highlights the critical need for design practitioners to adopt a decolonial approach when engaging with Indigenous communities. By critically examining how historical and ongoing colonial processes shape local food systems and research practices, it underscores the responsibility of designers to move beyond mere acknowledgment towards active disruption of harmful power structures. This necessitates a reflexive methodology that prioritizes Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, ensuring that design interventions are ethically sound and genuinely beneficial.
Source
Academic Publication
Tensions in Fostering ‘local food’ in the Northwest Territories: Contending with Settler Colonialism in Northern Research
journal · 2021
View sourceQuestions About This Research
- What does the research say about research design must actively disrupt colonial legacies in northern food systems?
- Designers must adopt a decolonial lens, actively questioning their positionality and the potential impact of their research on Indigenous communities, ensuring that projects empower rather than exploit. Evidence: Academic Publication (2021).
- Why does "Research Design Must Actively Disrupt Colonial Legacies in Northern Food Systems" matter for design?
- Designers and researchers working in or with Indigenous communities need to be critically aware of how their projects can inadvertently perpetuate colonial power structures. This requires a reflexive approach that questions existing narratives and prioritizes community-led initiatives over externally imposed solutions.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Designers must adopt a decolonial lens, actively questioning their positionality and the potential impact of their research on Indigenous communities, ensuring that projects empower rather than exploit.
- What were the main findings?
- Food system challenges in the Northwest Territories are deeply intertwined with ongoing settler colonial processes.. Research in Northern contexts often acknowledges historical colonialism but fails to address its present-day impacts and how research itself can uphold these structures.. Southern-based researchers have a responsibility to critically examine and disrupt colonial narratives about the North perpetuated through their work.
- What research method was used?
- Reflexive analysis of research engagements and literature review.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Strong effect, based on a 2021 journal from Academic Publication.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- Before initiating any design project in an Indigenous community, conduct a thorough assessment of potential colonial impacts and engage in genuine partnership with community members to co-create research objectives and methodologies.
- What are the limitations?
- The study is based on the researcher's personal experiences and reflexive analysis, which may be subject to individual interpretation.