Abstract
In this paper I propose land-based design methodologies as a way to un-design the colonial space of the University. I contextualize land-based pedagogy within an embodied practice and thus I address my own positionality as a LatinX Queer Brown Mestiza Woman. In the context of a course that I developed called Re-reading Place, I present a methodology that I define as Land-bordering, which captures the transmission of memories and lived experiences as they connect to the land and the intersections that influenced that experience. I propose a design process of dismantling the colonial structures of modernist design that exacerbate the individual and the universal, by looking back, reading place and its history, recognizing its Indigenous Sovereignty, but also bringing in our own epistemologies, decolonizing ourselves and tracing the footprints of a community that in a respectful way aims to build a World where many Worlds can fit. With the support of the Aboriginal Gathering Place and the collaboration of indigenous cultural advisors, the course engages the role of Indigenous local knowledge, languages and protocols in the creation of a wayfinding system for the school, taking onto a journey of dismantling and re-tooling the university space.
Keywords
Indigenous Sovereignty, Pluriverse, Decoloniality, Borderlands
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2021.0042
Citation
Vera, P.(2021) Between Borderlands and Intersections: Roñe’e Yvype (We talk about land), in Leitão, R.M., Men, I., Noel, L-A., Lima, J., Meninato, T. (eds.), Pivot 2021: Dismantling/Reassembling, 22-23 July, Toronto, Canada. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2021.0042
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Between Borderlands and Intersections: Roñe’e Yvype (We talk about land)
In this paper I propose land-based design methodologies as a way to un-design the colonial space of the University. I contextualize land-based pedagogy within an embodied practice and thus I address my own positionality as a LatinX Queer Brown Mestiza Woman. In the context of a course that I developed called Re-reading Place, I present a methodology that I define as Land-bordering, which captures the transmission of memories and lived experiences as they connect to the land and the intersections that influenced that experience. I propose a design process of dismantling the colonial structures of modernist design that exacerbate the individual and the universal, by looking back, reading place and its history, recognizing its Indigenous Sovereignty, but also bringing in our own epistemologies, decolonizing ourselves and tracing the footprints of a community that in a respectful way aims to build a World where many Worlds can fit. With the support of the Aboriginal Gathering Place and the collaboration of indigenous cultural advisors, the course engages the role of Indigenous local knowledge, languages and protocols in the creation of a wayfinding system for the school, taking onto a journey of dismantling and re-tooling the university space.