INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS INITIATIVE (IKSI)

About

Remain initiated the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative (IKSI) to respectfully acknowledge Indigenous historic and contemporary ties to the Envision Resilience Challenge sites. As an initiative, IKSI supports and brings awareness to Indigenous Knowledge and Native Science, alongside western resources, as a vital body of knowledge. IKSI collaborates with national and local Indigenous partners and organizations, to work toward the common goal of envisioning creative solutions to climate change and sea level rise that incorporate Indigenous knowledge and benefit all communities, including tribal communities.

IKSI includes the Envision Resilience Tribal Land Acknowledgement, the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative (IKSI) Working Syllabus, and an Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative (IKSI) Tribal Land Acknowledgement Working Map.

IKSI was created with the support of Anjelica S. Gallegos (Jicarilla Apache Nation/Santa Ana Pueblo), a member of the first Envision Resilience Challenge student cohort, Advisor of the Envision Resilience Challenge and Director of the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning and Design.

The Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design (ISAPD) supports the Envision Resilience Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative. IKSI embodies innovative and effective knowledge sharing to equip individuals and communities with principles and design solutions that elevate all architecture and related fields to embrace land and environment as fundamental for living.

ISAPD is an organization focused on increasing international knowledge, consciousness and appreciation of Indigenous architecture, planning and design, inclusive of landscape architecture and environmental design, in academia and the professional realm. ISAPD works toward fundamentally supporting and increasing the representation of American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, First Nations, Aboriginal Australians, Māori and other Indigenous Scholars and Peoples in these fields. Find out more at isapd.org.

Graphic designed by Anjelica S. Gallegos with faint purple patterns of wampum "beads," often used for the arts and as currency for North Eastern tribes. The form is based on a whale bone scapula and Nantucket's periphery shape and the floating shapes from the "island" are outlines of different types of vegetation found on Nantucket. 

Envision Resilience Tribal Land Acknowledgement

The Envision Resilience Challenge sites to date are traditional territory of the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Narragansett, Nauset, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Pokanoket, Tommokomoth, Wabanaki, Wampanoag and other Algonquian-speaking peoples. We pay respect to their communities of past, present and future.

The Envision Resilience Challenge recognizes the significant historic events, the policies of cultural assimilation and territorial dispossession, and the efforts to alter the sovereignty of American Indian peoples. We include the ongoing ramifications of this history in our research and design, as we consider the heritage of the Envision Resilience Challenge sites. Further, we acknowledge the effects that contemporary Federal Indian, cultural, agricultural, educational, infrastructure, and environmental policies have on the Indigenous community, the design and construction fields, greater society, and the natural environment today.

The Indigenous peoples have sustained these lands for time immemorial. We support Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous experiences of place. As architects, planners, designers, and visionaries of built environments, it is contextually relevant and imperative to include the Indigenous peoples’ history with sites of built and unbuilt projects. Alongside local leadership, community members, and academia, we initiate design thinking by focusing on the Indigenous relationship with the natural world and their environmental design and architecture of past and present.

With varying values and experiences, we seek to protect the common ground and work toward informed climate solutions for all communities. As futurists, we bring together people to reimagine coastal living, recognizing the reciprocal relationship we have with the land, water, and other living community members.

In this spirit, the following are the Envision Resilience Guiding Principles:

• Stewardship for open spaces, landscapes and existing buildings. Design choices based on reducing impact with materials suited for reuse, regeneration, and carbon sequestration.  

• Resilient landscape planning that is dynamic, relational and adaptable. Prioritizing operational efficiencies using natural processes to maximize infrastructure value.

• Prioritization of vulnerable communities most severely impacted by climate change and the transformative processes.

• Support productive landscapes (land and ecologies) that are the source of daily sustenance, food, water, energy, habitat, access, health, and recreation. 

• Expansion of knowledge in practices of equity, care, stewardship, responsibility, relationship, and respect for land, people and other living systems. 

As we step into the tide, we carry these principles to design thoughtful ways of living in our interconnected spatial environments. 

Indigenous Knowledge Systems Initiative Working Syllabus

The IKSI Working Syllabus provides selected resources on critical Indigenous knowledge systems and narratives of uncommon experiences of place, as a method to bolster climate justice. Principles and case studies of Indigenous sustainability in architecture, design, and programming are presented. The working syllabus, launched in August 2023, is a framework to add analyzed resources as the needs and sites change for each Challenge in the future. Check back in the fall to see the updated IKSI Working Syllabus!