Design Process

FRI-A05: Indigenous Stewardship Guiding Relational Design Practice

Friday, September 18, 2026

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM PT

1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW

Speaker(s)

Monique Bassey, ASLA (she/her/hers)

Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln , Nebraska
Paul Fragua, Affil. ASLA

Director of Native Nations Strategy and Relations
MIG, Inc.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Steve Laravie, Jr. (he/him/his)

Executive Director
Blue Heron Tiospaye
Lincoln, Nebraska

On land returned to Indigenous stewardship in Nebraska, An Indigenous-led non-profit organization, guides restoration through value systems Lakota and Dakota Culture and Lifeways. A university design studio learned to begin with listening, seeing land as living relative. This session shares how worldview reshapes site analysis, design, and stewardship practice.

Learning Outcomes:

Apply Indigenous worldviews and stewardship values to guide how a design project begins and evolves in service of the profession’s future.
Incorporate living systems—such as water, movement, animals, and seasonal change—as a foundation for design.
Recognize how stewardship practices—such as fire, eastern redcedar care, prairie renewal, and animal return—shape spatial decisions.
Use storytelling and documentation to support long-term cultural and ecological continuity.