D E C O L ONI ZI NG I NDUST R I A L D ESIGN
FROM COLONIZATION TO LIBERATION
H
istory is told through the eyes of the winners. Design is no different. Design is about storytelling. In essence, designers tell stories of ideas that don’t exist and validate their reason for being, the details of their form and manufacture, and the context and scenarios of use. And so, the story of American industrial design has been authored by those who have benefited from the conquering of Indigenous peoples, the enslaving of Africans, the appropriation of ideas, the importing of labor and talent, the capitalizing on cheap foreign labor, and the polluting of poor communities of color as a byproduct of manufacturing. These very real and easy-to-ignore sins of colonization have been woven into the very fabric of society, seeping into our material culture, the practice of industrial design, and the education of designers. The impacts of colonization are palpable, and at this point in history, understanding how far and wide they reach is complex. While colonization began in this country in relation to the people whose lands were stolen, it is now tied to matters of race, nationality, gender, language, and ability. Whether you benefit from, support, fall victim to, or are working to combat colonized design practices, the work to recognize the hallmarks of colonization and to decolonize design will be no less complex.
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A Colonized Design Education Colonization is not just the seizure of lands and the poor treatment of Indigenous people, but rather it’s the systemic erasure, the minimizing, and the retelling of history and the contributions of all people who have ever lived in and contributed to our culture and economy. When I look back on my own education, I can’t help but be angered by how the history of the Indigenous people of North America was taught—it was irresponsibly incomplete, incorrect, and racist. In my adult life and career as an exhibition designer working primarily in natural and cultural history centers with communities connected to Native American sites, I’m often left aghast at the cruelty of the European colonizers as they exterminated the Indigenous people, stole their lands, and erased the history of this continent—so much knowledge, culture, languages, and traditions forever lost to history. I was never the taught the extent of the design contributions of my own ancestors—enslaved people from Africa—who endured despite the horrible conditions of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the struggles of the Civil Rights movement, redlining, the school-to-prison pipeline, the war on drugs, and ongoing systemic violence and oppression. Yet Black people literally built this country. We’ve invented new music genres and created art,
