#39 - Native Voices with the Harvard Indigenous Design Collective

For the first time in the history of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, there are four Native American students enrolled at the same time. They are Elsa Hoover, Zoe Toledo, Heidi Brandow, and Jaz Bonnin, and together, they have formed the Harvard Indigenous Design Collective. Their aim is to support the education and work of Indigenous architects, planners, designers, scholars, allies, and alumni of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In this episode, I speak with Elsa, Zoe, Heidi and Jaz about how they all met and found each other at GSD, what inspired them to form the HIDC, and how their Native backgrounds influence the ways in which they think about their work. We also discuss how architects can better acknowledge Native lands, how we all have a responsibility to push projects to have a richer and deeper connection with the lands they sit on and communities they serve, and the importance of including indigenous voices in architecture and design conversations.