Ruth Mirams talk at UX Australia
Ruth Mirams is a consultant for PwC Australia Indigenous Consulting. She gave an important talk at UX Australia 2016 about considerations when co-designing with indigenous communities.
She begins the talk by acknowledging how she is not indigenous, but her work with an indigenous team has been incredibly valuable to her, and lists many of the particular considerations when working with an indigenous community.
Of particular note:
Understand the meaning of self-determination. By engaging in co-design, the goal must be to preserve and uplift the sense of free will of stakeholders. As an outsider, she understands the importantce of getting past the notion of saviorism—to go from “I am here to help you” to “we are here to work together,” as she puts it.
Check your biases. She encourages us to question everything we think we know.
Cultural understandings of value. Indigenous people often have different notions of value that must be respected.
She also introduced their design process—the lower cycle is a reformation of the double diamond model that aligns with her clients’ values. This is the first time I ever really noticed the value in defining one’s own design thinking model—it allows for the establishment of a common language!
Here, she noted some challenges as well—discovery can be a difficult phase with her clients because of issues surrounding data and custodianship of knowledge. The most important thing here is to be respectful and establish trust.
As for define, she notes that outsiders don’t need to define the issues of these communities—they live with them daily and can express them. Often, consultants come in and make uninformed recommendations. As one indigenous person says in a video she shares, “we are the most consulted group in Australia.”
The real value lies in designers’ future-oriented process: “As designers, we have the chance to focus on possibility.” By listening deeply and providing designerly frames of consideration, it allows clients to free themselves of their current situations and think openly about the future. This is the true value of co-design: when you connect diverse groups, you get diverse ideas, and make important connections.
She ends the talk by saying that indigenous groups have been innovating and perseverant for tens of thousands of years, and that by tapping into that wisdom, we can address some of the world’s most pressing issues. She challenges the audience to consider their part in bridging those wisdoms.
On compatibility of Western design practice and indigenous design, and the feasibility of designing cross-culturally
At the end of the talk, an audience member questions Ruth about the feasibility of Anglo and other backgrounded designers if they can actually effectively engage in this type of work. Ruth answers that through a respectful approach, there isn’t much of an issue, and that most questions asking why she is engaging come from non-indigenous people. She sees the value firsthand and believes that the design community are equipped with the tools to affect real change for these communities.
She also notes that indigenous communities are already using design thinking. “We’re just wrapping a language around it that other people from other cultures can understand, like me.” What this collaborative process allows for is the scaling of indigenous innovation.
