Homepage filters

Talks

Panel Discussion

Indigenising Design, webinar one, indigenising physical spaces 

[Indigenising Design](https://www.indigenisingdesign.org/) aims to bring together like-minded individuals from across the globe to discuss, unpack and explore the ways in which our world is designed. It celebrates indigeneity and the identities, customs, stories and practices that make our indigenous communities unique. Through indigenising our design practices, we actively dismantle the lasting impacts of colonisation in our built and designed spaces. 

This is the first in a six-part webinar series running into 2025. Each webinar will be recorded and made available to view on the Indigenising Design website [here](https://www.indigenisingdesign.org/).

---

# Webinar One: Indigenising Physical Spaces

Co-hosted by Dr Johnson Witehira, Co-Founder and Creative Director for Indigenous Design & Innovation Aotearoa (IDIA), and Keita Twist, Director and Strategist for IDIA. Find out more about IDIA [here](https://www.idia.nz/). 

### Panellists:

- __Sandeep Virmani__, Architect - Non Executive Vice Chairman of Hunnarshala Foundation (India)

- __Stella Mutegi__, Architect – Co-Founder and Director of Cave_bureau (Kenya)

- __Dr Rebecca (Becky) Kiddle__, Director – Te Manawahoukura (Aotearoa New Zealand)

The webinar will be hosted on Microsoft Teams Live at the following times: 

- 07:00 - London 
- 10:00 - Nairobi
- 12:30 - New Delhi 
- 20:00 - Wellington 

---

# Speaker Biographies 

## Dr Johnson Witehira: Co-Founder and Creative Director for IDIA  
Dr. Johnson Witehira is a leading Māori innovator working across art, design, technology, and game development. As a Director of IDIA and PAKU, and a board member of the NZ Game Developers Association and The National Digital Forum, Johnson focuses on bringing Indigenous knowledge and creative thinking into contemporary design practices. His work spans multiple domains, from developing innovative AR experiences featuring atua Māori to revitalizing tribal narratives through community-driven projects in the Ruapehu district. A key aspect of his mahi is the indigenisation and decolonisation of design, ensuring that Māori perspectives, values, and tikanga are at the forefront of the creative process. In all his projects, Johnson is committed to ensuring that Māori stories continue to flourish in design and digital spaces. 

## Keita Twist: Director and Strategist for IDIA  

Ko wai au? he uri tenei no Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Tahu, Ngāti Whaoa. I am an experienced service design, co design and community engagement practitioner who loves working with people to define and achieve their goals. I have over 15 years’ experience in leading design, leading organisations and their leaders and people through change. I have worked in the public sector, alongside NGOs, with community groups, iwi and hapu, I love leading collaborative sessions with a wide range of stakeholders, making sure all people feel seen, heard and safe to participate. One of my favourite things is talking with people about what is important to them, what makes their hearts sing, what they are passionate about and using these insights to create good sustainable change.

## Sandeep Virmani: Architect, Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Hunnarshala Foundation (India)

For over three decades, Sandeep has been living and working with indigenous communities in Kutch. An environmentalist at heart, he has trained as an architect and worked with communities all over India, building with natural materials and revitalizing their traditional building crafts. He has set up two institutions – Hunnarshaala Foundation which works on built habitats, and Sahjeevan, has enabled marginalized communities to regenerate and conserve the ecologies and reinvigorate their livelihoods, including conserving traditional water management systems, wild life conservation, pastoralism, organic farming and crop seed conservation. Sahjeevan has set up the Centre for Pastoralism that works through partners in eight states in India and hosts the Living Lightly – Journey’s with Pastoralists exhibition. Sandeep looks to painting, story-telling, yoga and the fascinating world of insects to fuel his forays at work. [Find out more](http://www.hunnarshala.org/about-us.html). 

## Stella Mutegi: Architect, Co-Founder and Director of Cave_bureau (Kenya)

Stella heads the technical department at Cave, where she orchestrates the seamless coordination of our ideas into built form. She partakes in the Cave_bureau expeditions and surveys into caves within the Great Rift Valley, navigating a return to the limitless curiosity of our early ancestors. She also interrogates the playful and intensive research studies that form part of a broader decoding of the pre and post-colonial African city. A Kenyan qualified architect since 2009; Stella has worked at Symbion Kenya, Dimensions Architects, and Interior Designers in Kenya. Stella studied at University of Newcastle in Australia where she completed her architectural education, before returning back home to Kenya. She then qualified as an Architect under the Board of Registration of Architects & Quantity Surveyors (BORAQS) and is a member of the Architectural Association of Kenya. In spring 2025 she will be a Louis I. Khan Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale School of Architecture. [Find out more](https://www.cave.co.ke/). 

## Dr Rebecca (Becky) Kiddle: Director – Te Manawahoukura (Aotearoa New Zealand)

Dr Rebecca Kiddle is Ngāti Porou and Ngāpuhi and is Director of the Research Centre, Te Manawahoukura based at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. With training in urban design (MA and PhD from Oxford Brookes University, UK), her work focuses on Indigeneity in an urban context and in particular the uncovering of Indigenous identities, worldviews and value sets in our homes, streets, public spaces, towns and cities. Her work has focused on the idea of imagining decolonised cities having led a project of the same name with members of the iwi (tribe) Ngāti Toa Rangatira. [Find out more](https://www.temanawahoukura.org.nz/).

---

# Future Webinars

- Panel 2: Decolonising Global Systems (February 2025)
- Panel 3: Indigenising Fashion and Entrepreneurship (April 2025)
- Panel 4: Indigenising Gaming and Story-Telling (June 2025)
- Panel 5: Indigenous Sustainability and Ecology (August 2025)
Panel 6: Indigenous-Led Digital Futures (September 2025)

---

# Join the Indigenising Design Mailing list 
If you would like to hear updates about future webinars, please join the Indigenising Design mailing list [here](http://eepurl.com/i2NZXM). 


Webinar: Indigenising Physical Spaces 

Paper pulping workshop with artist Ben Sanderson. A Tender Acts collective action on the Penryn campus, May 2024 © Barbara Santi, 2024

Hands making paper out of pulp

Follow Tender Acts 

Student Volunteer Callout: Tender Acts 

An underwater invertebrate creature emerges from mud and green coloured sand along the side of a transparent box. 

Find out more about Exeter Doctoral College 
[www.exeter.ac.uk/research/doctoralcollege/](https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/doctoralcollege/)