VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

Theory: In search for the meaning of cultural heritage and what is worthy of preservation, the authenticity of the indigenous offers us the deepest, most reliable insights. For First Nation Peoples, authenticity and indigenous are synonymous by default. Here, people and place originate together, holistically. As the two are birthed innocently as one, the life of each is seen as dependent on the other, where the nature of place and of self are intuited as one-in-the same. They become inseparable as heritage identity or lifestyle traditions. Application: Learning the ‘indigenous way’- how to be ‘indigenated’, offers lessons on understanding the full measure and meaning of heritage. This is evidenced by the current research and design of my university design studio, where 20 graduate and undergraduate students from three different design disciplines, Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design, have been exploring a process of becoming indigenitized through a three-step decolonizing process: 1. THE INDIGENOUS: How Do We Become ‘Indigenated’? learning how the indigenous originate an authentic heritage of people and place 2. FUSION: How Do We ‘Result’ the Third? grappling with merging this unique approach of originating a ‘making’ process with contemporary practices that extend the life cycle of indigenous outcomes 3. STARTING OVER: How Do We Begin Again? discovering how the ‘indigenous process’ is causing our own way of understanding heritage to be reshaped. Outcome: By turning the process inwardly on ourselves, we learned what it means to become our own authentic, heritage project.