Distinguished Professor of Indigenous design and planning to visit York

Indigenous peoples playing music drums

York University welcomes Regents’ and Distinguished Professor Theodore (Ted) Jojola, creator and director of the Indigenous Design and Community Planning Institute at the University of New Mexico, to Toronto for a knowledge sharing trip. He hopes to learn from the conversations taking place at York around Indigenous community planning, share his unique research and experiences, and visit the Six Nations of the Grand River territory.

As part of his visit to the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages, Jojola will host a discussion on Jan. 19, to which the York community is invited and encouraged to attend.

Theodore (Ted) Jojola close-up portrait
Theodore (Ted) Jojola

Jojola, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta, has connected with Indigenous communities around the world in New Zealand, Australia, across Africa and North America to explore how they represent themselves.

Through his research career, Jojola has published on Indigenous community development, education, planning and architecture, building an approach that unites place-based cultures and Indigenous agency towards a better understanding of the significance of life in community planning.

Jojola champions the “Seven Generation Model” as a tool to understand reciprocal learning to shape meaningful dialogue and better outcomes for our collective futures. The model challenges contemporary norms in planning, which often focus on time-based targets, and instead prioritizes a framework that values the continuity of life. This allows for ancestral learning to inform the present to build a collective vision for the future.

At home in New Mexico, Jojola and the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute are working on exciting local and international initiatives, and currently creating an online certification in Indigenous Community Planning.

PlaceKnowing and Rematriation: Indigenous Design and Planning

Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. – Join Jojola in conversation at the Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies building, room 140 (HNES 140).