What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design?
Dismantling design history 101
By Anoushka Khandwala
“Decolonization” is a word we’re increasingly hearing at design events, often being used interchangeably with “diversity.” It’s important to emphasize that while the terms are linked, they shouldn’t be confused. Diversity is about bringing more people to the table. Decolonization is about changing the way we think. So what does that mean for design and designers?
To understand the place of decolonization within design, it’s vital to first get our terms straight. “Colonization” is rooted in indigenous peoples’ experiences of oppression — specifically, the seizure of native resources, as well as the embedding of Western ideology into society. The word “decolonization” was originally used to describe the withdrawal of a state from a former colony. Now, decolonization has come to represent a whole host of ideas: It’s an acknowledgement that in the West, society has been built upon the colonization of other nations, that we exist within a system of privilege and oppression, and that a lot of the culture we’ve come to see as ours has actually been appropriated or stolen.
Save for the editorial platform and research group Decolonising Design and a number of scholarly articles, there’s little readily accessible information online about…
