Decolonizing Design: Cross Cultural Collaborations with the Coast Salish Peoples

Location:

Green Infrastructure Summit of the Salish Sea

Online Event

Speaker:

Dakota Keene

Date & Time:

03.24.2022 | 10:10 am–11:25 am (Pacific Time)

We are entering an era of indigenous-led conservation. Tribal involvement has tipped the scales in favor of several large environmental wins in the Salish Sea, including the defeat of the proposed Cherry Point Coal Terminal, and the removal of the Lower Elwha and Middle Fork Nooksack Dams.

The Coast Salish peoples bring a knowledge of this ecosystem, a sense of the sacred, and a moral authority to these fights, which environmental groups, government agencies, and others in the broader Salish Sea community lack on their own. Treaty rights are also powerful legal tools. In the effort to protect and restore the Salish Sea, the broader community has a lot to learn from the Coast Salish peoples, and a lot to gain by collaborating with them.

Join Mithun principal Dakota Keene for “Decolonizing Design: Cross Cultural Collaborations with the Coast Salish Peoples” to hear perspectives on how we can build the capacity for difficult conversations, healing and reciprocity, and collaborative processes from individuals who have undertaken cross-cultural collaborations in tribal government, environmental design, activism and cultural interpretation.

Dakota’s co-panelists include Jay Julius (Se’Si’Le), Beka Economopoulos (The Natural History Museum), and Robin Little Wing Sigo (Suquamish Foundation). Bonnie Swift (Tokitae) will moderate the discussion.

Date Posted: 03.24.2022