What becomes possible when we connect people, resources and knowledge for Indigenous-led, regenerative futures?
Design Reparations builds relationships and alliances between professionals, organizations, Indigenous communities and investors to support repair, care and regeneration.
OUR TEAM
Nice to meet you
Cecilia Scolaro
Cecilia is an educator, a consultant and an organizer in the space of Responsible Design and design decolonization.
With a background in Design and almost 20 years experience across several industries, roles and companies, she advocates for practices that prioritise respect, social justice and regeneration.
OUR STORY
Why Design Reparations?
We are living in a moment of climate breakdown, social fragmentation, economic instability, and declining protection from institutions. These conditions are not accidental, but the result of systems built on extraction, inequality, and short-term thinking, whose consequences are increasingly borne by communities and ecosystems far removed from decision-making power.
Across all sectors, several people are working to profound re-imagine and transform practices, structures, and engagement, to prioritize responsibility, ecology, and justice.
But this is not the full story.
There are still people holding the line. People who never stopped caring and protecting the Earth and people.
They carry on with ways of knowing and being rooted in life, diversity, and balance, rather than exploitation and control.
Indigenous and traditional peoples, who protect forests, rivers, seeds, stories, and futures and whose knowledge is key for collective survival.
Local activists fighting exploitation one garden at a time.
Cultural workers refusing to support the suprematist narrative.
Our work begins with a question:
How do we
stand with them?
about us
The people we learn from
Working alongside Indigenous and traditional peoples, local activists and cultural workers who are shaping more just and regenerative futures.
Oscar Ryan Ouma
Kenge Content Hive
Oscar is the founder of Kenge Content Hive, in Busia, Kenya that mobilizes and engages the local community around regenerative and cultural initiatives, rooted in the local Samia wisdom.
Ian Francis Onyango
Kenge Content Hive
Ian is the co-founder of Kenge Content Hive and an advocate for environmental conservation, passionate about empowering youth to address the effects of climate change.
Umayya Abu-Hanna
Gaza Travel Agency
Umayya is a Palestinian author. A member of the CIE - Centre for International Heritage Activities, co-founder and Chair of The Hummus Academy, co-founder and Chair of Rethink Foundation, co-creator of The Gaza Travel Agency.
Paul Ole Leitura
Mulika Afrika
Paul is an Indigenous Maasai, Indigenous Peoples' rights advocate, and community development practitioner from northern Tanzania. He is the founder of Mulika Afrika, a non-profit dedicated to empowering marginalized Maasai communities.
In loving memory of Mzee Manga, Elder Samia, Kenya
Mzee Manga was a key member of the Samia community in Busia county and the source of indigenous wisdom that fuelled our projects there. We remember him and keep his lessons alive.
Princess Abumbi Prudence
Youth and the future
Princess Abumbi is the founder of Youth and the Future. She champions gender equality and community resilience through indigenous knowledge.
Myra Colis
MABIKAs Foundation
Myra is the Founding Chairperson of MABIKAs Foundation-The Netherlands. Born in the Philippines, she has over 15 years of diverse experience, including teaching, research, content creation, event management, community building, and self-publishing.
WarīNkwī Flores
Kinray Hub
WarīNkwī is a member of Kinray Hub from Ecuador, an Indigenous-led initiative that integrates Indigenous philosophy into climate research, technology and business.
Cesar Taguba
Kenge Content Hive
Cesar is an indigenous elder from the Philippines, advocates for justice and peace. He is also a Board Member of The MABIKAs Foundation.
Xavier Donker
Stichting Ocan
Brand & Marketing communication officer at Stichting Ocan, past Board Member at ENAR Brussels, Xavier brings his expertise in anti-racism, race relations, equity and inclusion and intersectionality.
Kowawa Kapokaja (Pietra Dolamita) Apurinã
Instituto Pupỹkary
Kowawa is a PhD, art educator, anthropologist, activist, and member of the Instituto Pupykary and Artivismo Indigena (Brazil).
about us
Not only traditional knowledge
We weave different knowledge systems and epistemologies engaging people from all over the world.
Beyond Reparation, towards Relational.
Quote by Chief Ninawa Inu, of the people Huni Kui, from Acre, Amazon, Brazil, and Ambassador of the University of the Forest.
"A framework of justice is necessary in Western political contexts where we need to be intelligible and where we still need to be represented in our fight for reparations and restitution. However, this is only harm reduction work that addresses the symptoms of the diseases (colonialism and racism). The root of the fundamental existential problem is relational. The framework of justice is extremely limited because it is still based on separability and human superiority. It does not reflect the reality that everything is inseparable from each other."
Join us
Volunteering with Design Reparations
We invite people who want to contribute their time, skills and energy while exploring more relational ways of working and being in the world.
Volunteering with us is an opportunity not only to contribute, but also to listen, learn, question familiar ways of doing things and develop new ways of thinking and practising together.
Working alongside Indigenous and traditional peoples, local activists and cultural workers, volunteers can support meaningful initiatives while encountering different worldviews, forms of knowledge and ways of relating to place, community and the living world.
We believe that meaningful change begins with relationships. By bringing our skills and capacities into service of work that is already rooted in communities, we can learn from one another and help create the conditions for more just, caring and regenerative futures.
about us
Our volunteers
about us
Our partners
Organizations we work with and alongside to support more just and regenerative futures.
Kenge Content Hive
Youth-led community based organization working to achieve SDGs in rural communities along the Lake Victoria Basin.
Kenya
Youth and the Future
Empowering
Youths & Reviving
Cameroonian Marginalised Communities.
Cameroon
MABIKA'S Foundation
Where Indigenous Perspectives Bridge Today's Innovation, Policy & Community and Sustainable Futures.
Philippines and The Netherlands
Kinray Hub
Centering on creating negotiation conditions for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in cross-cutting sectors.
Ecuador
Stichting Rethink
Fostering cultural diversity and accessibility within leadership and power structures in society.
The Netherlands
Marsabit Botanical Gardens
An Indigenous-led conservation and ecological restoration initiative in Marsabit County.
Kenya
GNDR
The largest global network of organisations working to strengthen the resilience of people most at risk of disasters.
UK
Ocan
Improving the position, participation, and emancipation of Caribbean Dutch people and related people.
The Netherlands
Artivismo Indígena
Art, Ativism, Antropology, Education and Anti-colonial consultancy
Brazil
Mulika Afrika
Improving the health, education, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability for the Maasai community.
Tanzania
UX for Change
Rediscovering why you design. Reclaiming your design dream.
Inclusive Design Jam
Design a more just future in community. Meeting fellow practitioners of inclusive & equitable design in a safe community space.
Humanitarian Designers
Together, we build bridges between
designers and aid workers.
Taller
An architecture studio, delivering a lasting legacy of buildings, spaces, and places. Connecting with people for positive change.
Colombia and The Netherlands
Spinsels
A social design studio working for an inclusive, just, and more enjoyable world in which people feel seen and experience space for wonder.
The Netherlands
Museum Orientalis
One of the oldest open-air museums in the Netherlands, where nature, history, and stories come together.
7th Generation Lab
An interGenerational, interCultural Learning Community sharing Old Ways and listening for New Ways.
United States
Oxfam Novib
Together with partners and activists, Oxfam works in nearly 80 countries on structural solutions to put an end to inequality for good.
The Netherlands
join us
Do you want to support?
Design Reparations exists because of the dedication of its volunteers. The work we do with organisations is also meant to support the work we donate to indigenous communities and local activists around the world. You can support us in different ways: by volunteering on a specific project, by volunteering for Design Reparations in general or by donating.