Respectful Science: Transitioning towards a respectful custodianship of our oceans and coasts
Agency in Design was engaged to facilitate an online mapping exercise for an interdisciplinary session convened by Future Earth Coasts for the Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress 2021. The session explored futures of probabilities and possibilities regarding nature and people living where land and ocean realms meet.
Our approach
Being guided by Professor Norman Sheehan, and supported by Professor Tim Smith, Professor Anja Scheffers, and A/Prof Kai Schulz, Agency in Design worked with session participants to identify their ontological position with regards to their scientific practice. As the session had a focus on exploring what knowledge co-production with Indigenous people could be we were afforded an opportunity to challenge the normative expectations regarding researcher/practitioner positionality. By working with the broader goal of the session, that being the call for ontological redirection within the sciences, our novel mapping routine was structured to reveal the redirective potential inherent in Indigenous Knowledge informed design routines and to demonstrate the efficacy of engaging in these routines as a grounding for authentic co-production with Indigenous peoples.
