Colonization Through Design explores the extent to which housing, and ideas of home and domesticity, were fundamental to the colonization of Indigenous people in Canada, tracing the historic conflict between agricultural Christian society and Indigenous ways of knowing, and the ongoing assimilative practices of the contemporary settler state. The design profiles within the book explore a new design plurality that links innovative technical solutions with Indigenous knowledge, and present various design solutions that generate cultural continuity and environmental sustainability.

Gavin Renwick's profile page

Gavin Renwick has taught in and worked through architecture, design, fine art and curation. He has degrees from Napier College, Edinburgh; the Royal College of Art, London; and the University of Dundee. In 2005 Renwick was appointed Professor and Chair of Art & Policy at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee; he joined the University of Alberta in 2010. Renwick’s present work places the practitioner-researcher as a cultural intermediary between Indigenous and metropolitan culture. His applied and curatorial practice aims to facilitate cultural continuity for First Nation communities, particularly in the Canadian Northwest Territories.