How can design heal, repair and restore rather than extract and exploit?
Design Reparations brings together people, organizations and communities committed to support acts of repair, care and regeneration.
We work alongside Indigenous and traditional peoples, local activists and cultural workers putting our time, skills and resources behind more just and regenerative futures.
A collaborative program bringing people together to collectively imagine just, regenerative, and decolonial futures.
Find out more about the program, join our crowdfunding campaign or sign up for the Cohort. Join us in re-imagining futures we deserve.
our work
How do design reparations look like?
A research in regenerative practices from the Samia community in Kenya. Celebrating and reviving traditions for climate resilience and community cohesion.
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An imaginary travel agency that designs the return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral towns. It is a speculative and participatory design experience that invites visitors to visualize, not debate, the routes, possibilities, and emotions of return.
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An exhibition and a panel discussion about decolonize design and centering Indigenous Knowledge at Nairobi Design Week.
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A visual design concept and execution that integrates the diversity and strength of natural ecosystems and a global network of communities working on disaster risk reduction.
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about us
Why Design Reparations?
We come together to design and work on projects that can regenerate land and communities depleted by exploitation and oppression.
We are motivated by indigenous and traditional people, local activists and cultural workers who have been caring for and protecting the Earth, its forests, rivers, peoples, stories, and futures.
projects and services
Our projects and circles
Design Reparations works together with several indigenous and local organizations around the world to support their work rooted in relationality and connection. Our partners are leading the work, the scope and the implementation of our projects. We invite and coordinate volunteers that get to learn from traditional and ancestral cultures while working on indigenous-led futures.
Regeneration Festival
Together with Kenge Content Hive and the Samia community in Kenya, we explore how ancestral traditions of communal dialogue can connect generations and support community-led climate resilience and regeneration.
Cultural Knowldge Revival
Together with Kenge Content Hive and the Samia community in Kenya, we document and share ancestral knowledge, connecting generations and keeping cultural practices alive.
Decolonizing Design and Innovation
Through lectures and collaborations with universities and student communities, we explore how decolonizing design and innovation can support climate justice, value Indigenous knowledge and nurture more reciprocal relationships with the living world.
Nairobi Design Week
How can decolonized design support climate justice? At Nairobi Design Week 2025, we invited visitors to explore this question through conversations, Indigenous knowledge and the wisdom of Samia traditions.
In dialogue with Ancestral Knowledge holders
Through two online conversations with Princess Abumbi Prudence of the Bafut community in Cameroon and Paul Ole Leitura of Mulika Afrika, we explored how Indigenous knowledge and design practices can inform more reciprocal, sustainable and reparative ways of living and working.
Dutch Design Week 2024
Our first Design Reparations initiative brought together the design community and traditional communities through two sessions exploring ancestral knowledge, colonial histories and reciprocity.
STORIES AND NEWS
Our Stories
Our work is shaped by the people we collaborate with, the experiences we gather and the world around us. Here, we share stories, insights and reflections from our own practice and that of our partners, opening up perspectives on the questions, challenges and opportunities that matter to us.
Gaza Travel Agency: A Reflection on the Right of Return
It was a rain-soaked day in Eindhoven. Away from the frenetic energy of the 2025 Dutch Design Week, inside a container we were designing the most fundamental of human journeys: the journey home. Volunteers welcoming visitors at Gaza Travel Agency. The Gaza Travel...
Stewarding Gaza Travel Agency at Dutch Design Week 2025
It’s a pleasant Sunday in Eindhoven. Dutch Design Week 2025 has started and people are strolling, walking, someone marching in the impossible task of seeing everything that is presented this year. The map listing all Dutch Design Week locations is overwhelming, every...
Our Journey Post Nairobi Design Week
Insights from our Interview with Mama Melta as illustrated by Mariastella Kamuti. In March, during Nairobi Design Week 2025, we set up our stand hoping to share what we’ve been doing with the Samia community around Lake Victoria. To our surprise, people didn’t just...
The Art of Traditional Craft: How Mzee Edward’s Skills Can Inspire Modern Designers.
Mzee Edward Namuye, photo by Obosh Pixels Mzee Edward Namuye from Busijo Village in the Samia community is a skilled artisan dedicated to traditional craftsmanship. At 76 years old, he has spent his entire life making chicken coops (Amadiri,) a craft that has...
The power of intergenerational conversations
Group picture after the workshop at Bumbe Cultural Centre. Photo by Obosh Pixels On 1st March 2025, a unique and significant gathering took place at Bumbe Cultural Centre in Busia. It brought together elders and youth from the Samia community, providing a platform to...
Design as living dialogue
Insights from the January session with the Bafut Community On January 10th, 2025, Design Reparations partnered with Princess Abumbi Prudence from the Bafut Community in Cameroon. The presentation revealed an idea of design that is not just solving practical needs or...
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.