In a project with Te Atiawa – a Māori tribe in New Zealand – we combined tools from futures and design thinking with Tikanga Māori (loosely translated as the Māori ‘way of doing things’), empowering rangatahi (Māori youth) to express their ideas and images of the future.
Through this work, we have learned about designing for inclusion, and the advantages of combining complementary methods with indigenous perspectives to unlock culturally empowering ideas.
We have also experienced how Tikanga Māori has improved our design practice and inspired us to think more holistically.
This talk was delivered as part of the 2019 International Design Conference in Chicago, organised by the IDSA.
You can watch the video of the presentation by following this link https://vimeo.com/366302439
Famous and Important UIUX Laws for your next Digital product
Future Taonga: Creating inclusive futures by design
1. Future Taonga
Creating inclusive futures
by design
IDC Presentation
23 August 2019
CHRIS JACKSON
Founder + Director
We Create Futures
www.wecreatefutures.com
Instagram: wecreatefutures
Twitter: futureswecreate
8. Taonga
Taonga is a Māori word
used to describe a
cultural treasure.
This could be art, a place,
an object, a language, etc.
Māori Indigenous people
of Aotearoa, New Zealand
9. Aotearoa, New Zealand
Land mass: Similar to UK
Population: 4,970,510
(Similar to Alabama)
Official Languages: English,
Te Reo Māori, Sign Language
10. Aotearoa, New Zealand
Land mass: Similar to UK
Population: 4,970,510
(Similar to Alabama)
Official Languages: English,
Te Reo Māori, Sign Language
It’s not an island off,
or state of Australia.
11. Taranaki
We have been working in
Taranaki for 3+ years, building
co-design capability and skills.New
Plymouth
Wellington
12. Iwi Māori tribe
Rangatahi Young people
The Brief
Use design thinking to
understand the future
of leadership for the
rangatahi of Te Atiawa iwi.
13. Hands up if you have ever
facilitated or taken part in
a design thinking workshop
15. Can limit creativity, engagement
and personal agency
Imported, colonising model
Perpetuates the status quo,
especially in a capitalist context
Challenges
17. Our Approach
TIKANGA MĀORI
Cultural context
FUTURES + FORESIGHT
Exploring multiple futures
CODESIGN
Generative research and fostering
personal agency
DESIGNERLY PRACTICE
Creativity, Making, Iteration
24. The Polak Game
Diagram: Superflux
I feel optimistic
but don’t know
what I can do
I feel optimistic
and can influence
change
I feel pessimistic
and I don’t know
what I can do
I feel pessimistic
but think I could
make a difference
Optimism
Pessimism
Low
Agency
High
Agency
25. Jim Dator
What Future Studies is,
and is not, 1994
“Futures studies does not - or should not - pretend to
predict “the future.” It studies ideas about the future
- what I usually call “images of the future” – which
each individual (and group) has (often holding
several conflicting images at one time).”
29. Climate
Scenario
> Fish Stocks decrease
> Tensions between capitalism
and environmentalism increase
> Meat and milk grown in labs
approved for human consumption
> Global drought causes food crisis
> Entire West Antarctic ice shelf
collapses
30. “Any useful idea about
the futures should
at first appear to
be ridiculous.
Jim Dator
Dator’s Second Law
of Futures Studies
31. Te Reo Māori
Scenario
> Corporate influence on government
policy increase
> Tensions between iwi and
The Crown (government) increase
> Te Reo Māori becomes compulsory
in schools
> NZ becomes an Australian state
> Terrorists target NZ parliament
causing significant damage
39. Tikanga
Tikanga of Te Atiawa
> Pono
Acting with honesty and Integrity
> Manaaki
Enhancing the mana of others
> Kaitiaki
Being good guardians
> Pūmau
Inspiring unity and Commitment
Tikanga
Māori “way of doing things”
Mana
a supernatural force in a
person, place or object
47. Chicago
The city’s name comes from the Algonquian
people, who called the river on which it sits
“Checagou” after the stinky wild leeks that
grew along its shore.
49. Col. John Boyd
OODA LOOP
“A scheme of pulling things apart (analysis) and
putting them back together (synthesis) in new
combinations to find how apparently unrelated
ideas and actions can be related to one another.
50. At its most potent, design
challenges the status quo
imagines new systems,
creates agency and
empowers people.
51. Danah Abdulla
DECOLONIZE DESIGN
“[Design today] does not disrupt the status quo, it
does not disorder the established order. Decoloniality
is about reimagining something beyond the current
system we exist in.
53. Toni Morrison
2003
“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you
have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember
that your real job is that if you are free, you need
to free somebody else. If you have some power,
then your job is to empower somebody else.