Thursday 28 / Friday 29 August 2025
Thursday – Brasília 17:00 | London 21:00 | Harare 22:00 Friday – Wellington 08:00

Indigenous Sustainability and Ecology

Industrialisation, involving mass extraction of natural resources and the production of pollutant waste, is choking the planet. With customary knowledge stretching over millennia, Indigenous understandings of land, sea, and sky have a crucial role to play in our shared sustainability.

About the panel

  • Laura is an accomplished curator, researcher, and arts manager dedicated to collaborative community-centered curatorial practices. She expertly integrates theoretical and practical knowledge to foster inclusive and transformative art experiences as she explores intersections of art and ecology, gender and feminisms, social power and justice, heritage and memory. She creates thoughtful, impactful exhibitions through collective engagement with artists and communities. Her practice emphasizes co-creation, bridging traditional knowledge and contemporary art-making within studio environments. Her curatorial vision champion’s dialogue, cultural preservation, and participatory frameworks, ensuring meaningful connections and shared creative growth. She has an MA in Arts Management and Heritage Studies from the University of Leeds.

  • Moffat is a Zimbabwean contemporary sculptor. He is the founder of the Mbare Art Space in the Mbare neighborhood of the city of Harare, where he is known as the 'spiritual garbage man' because of his installations and sculptures he creates from waste products. He addresses material culture, spirituality and the environment. Having found a unique register to build his work, Takadiwa, is now one of the most global contemporary Zimbabwean artists. His work is shown in various venues from Los Angeles to Johannesburg; Harare to Tokyo and many places in between. He has reformed a former community beerhall that was abandoned in recent years into a thriving art precinct in the historical township of Mbare; here he has built his own studio, but also invites other artists to work in community with him.

  • Celia is Associate Professor at University of Brasília, and Visiting Research Royal College of Art, London, 2024. Post Experience Program, Royal College of Art, 2019. PhD in Arts and Technology - Art Institute/UnB, 2014. Visiting Researcher - Parsons The New School for Design, NY (2013). MA Graphic Design, Royal College of Art, London (1998).

    Artwork presented: Degree Show RCA, London (1998); Home From Home Gallery - Munich (2007); Fail. Berlin, Germany (2013); Year of Brazil in Portugal (2013); Museum of the Republic, Brasília Brazil. She won the RedDot Design Award (Editorial), Red Dot Design Museum - Essen, Germany (2010). CLAP 2013 Award - Madrid (2013). Book Art - The New York Book Art Fair - MoMA NY (2014). CLAP Award 2015 and 2016 - International Graphic Design Award, Madrid, Spain. AcrossRCA, RCA 2019. Exchange RCA, 2019. Textile Cartographies, Quinta da Cruz, Viseu, Portugal, 2022. Teresa Eça and Ângela Saldanha/APECV; Textile Cartographies, Contemporary Art Center of Viseu, Portugal, 2022; Textile Cartographies, Capelo Crafts Center - Faial Island in the Azores, Portugal, 2022. Gaining Ground: Craft Council/British Council, London 2022.

  • Teal is Professor of Graphic Design and Postgraduate Research Lead for the School of Communication, Royal College of Art. Her work focuses on the role of design in critical archiving and the communication of cultural practices. This includes ‘Building a Library for the Future: Munduruku Craft Practices and Indigenous Knowledge’, funded by the British Council. Her current collaboration ‘Graphic Design Histories for Creative Dissent: Archiving and Ethical Challenges’ (with partners in Brazil, South Africa and the UK) is a three-year funded Trans-Atlantic Platform project. Triggs is co-editor of Design Issues (MIT Press), and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

About the hosts

  • Director and Strategist for IDIA

    Ko wai au? He uri tenei no Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Tahu, Ngāti Whaoa

    I am an experienced service design, co design and community engagement practitioner who loves working with people to define and achieve their goals. I have over 15 years experience in leading design, leading organisations and their leaders and people through change.

    I have worked in the public sector, alongside NGOs, with community groups, iwi and hapu, I love leading collaborative sessions with a wide range of stakeholders, making sure all people feel seen, heard and safe to participate. One of my favourite things is talking with people about what is important to them, what makes their hearts sing, what they are passionate about and using these insights to create good sustainable change.

  • Lucy is a freelance creative strategist and innovator with a deep passion for culture, design, and systems thinking. Her career spans GLAM institutions, performing arts, service design, and kaupapa Māori design methodologies. She has worked across cultural heritage, innovation strategy, and production management, always weaving together mātauranga Māori, ecosystems logic, and design thinking to drive creative problem-solving.

    From curating exhibitions at the National Library to running innovation programmes at Te Papa’s Mahuki, Lucy thrives at the intersection of people, ideas, and systems. She brings a wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement, qualitative research, and co-design, helping to cultivate spaces where ideas can take root and flourish.

    Recently as Innovation Lead at Te Matarau a Māui, Lucy has been focused on fostering bold, future-focused thinking and creating pathways for Māori-led and Indigenous innovation. She is passionate about designing programmes that empower entrepreneurs, creatives, and communities to explore new possibilities and bring transformative ideas to life.