Respecting our relations: Dori Tunstall on decolonising design

I first came across Dori Tunstall when I was looking into a Masters of Design Anthropology at Swinburne University. Sadly the program is no longer offered, but I follow her work and writings as Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University. (She is the first black dean of a faculty of design anywhere.)

Dori Tunstall coined the term ‘respectful design’ to refer to a new way of approaching decolonisation in design. Instead of dictating what respectful design should entail, she creates space for individuals and communities to think about what respect means to them. “You find respect as one of the central values in indigenous cultures but also in other cultures as well. Every culture has a term for respect. Generally most of our conflicts are about disrespect or perceptions of disrespectful interactions and engagement.” While terms like ‘social justice’ and ‘progressive’ can be divisive, “no one is going to say, ‘We don’t want respectful design’.”

Decolonising design means re-centring indigenous values, including radically different attitudes to the environment. Tunstall wants to see a shift from ‘human-centred design’ to humans being placed in their appropriate context within the entire natural world.