Voices of the Land: Indigenous Design and Planning from the Prairies
Edited by Reanna Merasty, Naomi Ratte, Danielle Desjarlais and Desiree Theriault (Indigenous Design and Planning Students? Association, 2021)
In 2019, Ininew (Woodlands Cree) architecture student Reanna Merasty and Peguis First Nation landscape architecture student Naomi Ratte met at the University of Manitoba. To bring their cultures more strongly into the school?s design teaching, they founded the Indigenous Design and Planning Students? Association (IDPSA). The group now includes 16 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students of architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and city planning.
The book Voices of the Land documents the group?s work in the school, and the design visions of its members. It features interviews with Indigenous alumni, including Ryan Gorrie and Rachelle Lemieux, who co-edited a similar publication, Aboriginal Architecture, in 2009. Voices of the Land provides inspirational glimpses of some of Canada?s future Indigenous design leaders, as well as a snapshot of what the integration of Indigenous knowledge can bring to architectural education. Within the faculty of architecture, first-year undergraduates take part in a traditional tipi-building workshop. The school has hosted several panel discussions focused on enacting reconciliation within the design professions. Its educators are incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into their teaching, and several studios work with...