Episode

Sadie Red Wing on Indigenous design

Podcast
Design Emergency
Published
Apr 2, 2025
Duration seconds
2180
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://shows.acast.com/design-emergency/episodes/67ed6ae89524713132c22fe4
Audio
https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6376036839b22e00111c4121/e/67ed6ae89524713132c22fe4/media.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/design-emergency-5826807/episodes/sadie-red-wing-on-indigenous-design
Markdown
/podcast/design-emergency-5826807/sadie-red-wing-on-indigenous-design.md

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Summary

One of the deepest, most often overlooked emergencies in the design world is the erasure of Indigenous knowledge systems—and the continued exclusion of Indigenous voices from the platforms where futures are imagined. Why is it an emergency? Because plurality, intended as the active celebration of diversity, is not just a matter of common sense and respect, but also a matter of survival. Native cultures that have developed deep wisdom about the environment over centuries can offer powerful suggestions on how to deal with the climate crisis that global ignorance has precipitated. In this episode of Design Emergency, we speak with Sadie Red Wing, a Dakota Lakota graphic designer, researcher, and educator and a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation from the Great Plains in the United States. Her work bridges graphic design, advocacy––especially related to visual sovereignty––information systems, and cultural preservation. She reminds us that typography, layout, and even color theory are not neutral, but carry deep histories—and that these visual systems can either perpetuate colonization or become tools of liberation. You can find images related to Sadie’s work on our Instagram grid @design.emergency. Please join us for future episodes of Design Emergency when we will hear from other global design leaders who, like Sadie, are at the forefront of positive change. Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.