Radical reimaginations of the future

A cross community online gathering co-organized by Design Reparations, Inclusive Design Jam, Humanitarian Designers, Design Changemakers and UX for Change.

With the rise of anti-rights politics, plans of militarization and the degradation of our ecosystems, we are all feeling the grief and the exhaustion of disappointment, in our common commitment towards social justice, dignity and regeneration.

While these feelings are important and we need to acknowledge them, we believe that hope is a practice and that no future will ever exist if we are not going to imagine it together.

Let’s get together for an exercise of radical, ecological, reciprocal, trans-national, and just co-imagination.

Date: Thursday, February 19

1:00 PM - 2:30 PM GMT+1

Our circles

Cultural Knowledge Revival Program

Join the team documenting Samia Indigenous knowledge and how it can guide sustainable practices against climate change.

Explore this circle

Regeneration Festival

A festival in Busia county to center traditional knowledge on climate indicators, sustainable farming, and cultural history.

Explore this circle

Bring Gaza Home
Gaza Travel Agency

Bring Gaza Home advocates for the right of Palestinians to return to their homes.

Explore this circle

Nairobi Design Week

Design Reparations is participating in Nairobi Design Week with a workshop in Busia, an exhibition and a discussion panel.

Explore this circle

Showcase the artistic and design culture of the Bafut community

Imagining a local creative talent with the Bafut community as a celebration of talent and ancestral knowledge

Explore this circle

How can design heal, repair and restore rather than extract and exploit?
Design Reparations is nurturing relationships of understanding, care and reciprocity between designers, innovators, social entrepreneurs and the traditional, indigenous communities around the world, for ecological and just outcomes.

Join our crowdfunding and get invited to one Design Reparations session!

Donate now!

Design Reparations is participating in Dutch Design Week, 22 and 25 October, Eindhoven.

Learn more

News, reflections and invitations

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An online gathering co-organized by Design Reparations, @inclusivedesignjam, @humanitariandesigners, Design Changemakers and @ux4change.

With the rise of anti-rights politics, plans of militarization and the degradation of our ecosystems, we are all feeling the grief and the exhaustion of disappointment, in our common commitment towards social justice, dignity and regeneration.

While these feelings are important and we need to acknowledge them, we believe that hope is a practice and that no future will ever exist if we are not going to imagine it together.

Date: Thursday, February 19
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM GMT+1
Online gathering

Let’s get together for an exercise of radical, ecological, reciprocal, trans-national, and just co-imagination.

Read more and register at the link in bio

Over the past year and a half, Design Reparations has connected designers, innovators, and Indigenous communities.

We now invite organisations into this conversation, to explore how their culture, operations, and governance can move beyond extraction and build reciprocal relationships with people and planet.

In dialogue and collaboration with Indigenous leaders, whose communities have long lived in reciprocal relationships with ecosystems, we co-design models rooted in your organisation and people.

Our three services:
🌱 Rooting Culture — workshops, reflections, learning journeys
🧵 Weaving Operations — process redesign, transformation programs
🌍 Stewarding Governance — advisory boards or supervisory bodies with Indigenous leaders

Take a look at the slides to learn more. If you are part of an organisation, or know one, that is open to this collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.

#indigenousknowledge #designreparations #services

Greetings to the Rivers: Tietê in São Paulo, Rio Santo Anastácio in Presidente Prudente

Our Journey Post Nairobi Design Week.

"In March, during Nairobi Design Week 2025, we set up our stand, hoping to share what we’ve been doing with the Samia community around Lake Victoria. To our surprise, people didn’t just pass by, they stopped, listened, asked thoughtful questions, and shared their own stories about their experiences.
Many were especially curious about how traditional knowledge could play a role in addressing today’s climate challenges...

... the true paths to sustainability are not found in foreign ideas alone, but in returning to the wisdom of our ancestors—reviving the ways of our people and renewing our sacred relationship with the land and with one another."

Written by Ian Francis Onyango,
Co-Founder, Kenge Content Hive

Read the full article on the bio.

"Feminism is for everybody," as bell hooks reminded us. It’s not just about women’s rights (which it's enough to join forces)—it’s about challenging all systems of domination, specially sexism.

This past weeks, I’ve been reflecting while reading Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design (edited by Alison Place).

The book has bring new eyes to how design often reinforces oppressive structures (specially sexism in this case) without me even realizing it.

"Design is often touted as an intervention for improving or optimizing our lives, which obscures its role in reinforcing deeply embedded power structures that oppress people, exploit labor, and extract resources." — Alison Place

As a black, cisgender and heterosexual designer, I’ve been examining my own blind spots. This book is making me realize how much more we all could be doing to challenge systemic inequities in our field.

Here a few examples:
• Challenge hetero-patriarchal norms in the typography industry
• Stand in allyship with female and non-binary colleagues advocating for equal pay
• Learn about and celebrate the achievements of non-binary designers

"To live a feminist life is to make everything into something questionable." — Sara Ahmed

I’d love to hear from you:
• How do you bring feminist principles into your design practice?
• What inequities have you become more aware of in our field?
• Can you name a few female and non-binary designers that we should know more about their work and life?

Written by @tiago.paes.vilasboas co-founder of Design Reparations

#FeministDesign #inclusivedesign

ANCESTRAL WISDOM
FROM KENYA

"I remember a time when the land was lush with trees and wildlife. Winds once guided their lives: Agundu, the wind from the north, and Asego, from the south, both brought rain and were welcomed by the farmers. Ekhoma, the wind from the east, was a warning of drought, while Vuyanja, from the west, would spark Agundu, signalling the start of the rainy season.
These winds were as much a part of daily life as the rising and setting of the sun, and they guided the community through the seasons with an understanding that has been all but lost today."

Mzee Obwogo

#designreparations #responsibledesign #indigenousknowledge #ancestralwisdom #rainmakers

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