Since 2021 with colleagues, I have been exploring the process of introducing decolonial textiles pedagogy within the Textile design programme at Chelsea College of Arts, and more specifically a focused project within the Graduate Diploma in Textile Design course written with the textile artist Raisa Kabir. Decolonisation within higher education is at risk of becoming a buzzword without in reality achieving change (Crilly, 2019). However, the ongoing lived impacts of the colonial on knowledge production and more specifically textile knowledge production demands an active response within the context of textile design education.
It was Crilly’s article discussing Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration from a recent UAL’s in house journal, Spark, which I shared during our introductory tutor group sessions. Within the article reference is made to Mignolo and Walsh’s description of a specific ‘coloniality of knowledge’ and ‘epistemic totality’ as a characteristic of Eurocentric knowledge. This is seemingly significant to the Decolonising Textiles Tools project which explores textile making, designing, and using tools that are de-centered from euro-centric technology and thinking frameworks.
The aim of the project was to enable students to critically engage with what it means to be a socially and environmentally responsible designer decolonising the way we imagine textile production. Students explored the relationship between low technologies and climate racism/justice through experimentation with low-impact design/making methods.
In questioning how cultural imperialism affects textile identities related to place, land, culture, and language, students began to evaluate strands of global textile thinking. The critical intention of the project examines whether an embodied practice could innovate and make us think post industrially about textile design, altering our understanding of the euro-centric viewpoint of contemporary textile design education.
Decolonising pedagogy and curriculum is a core area within the UAL Academic Enhancement Model support in 2021/22 and the resources include summary outlines aswell as reading lists. As stated ‘Decolonisation can change the student learning experience ultimately giving students agency and choice in what they study, and how they study it’ (Warner et al, 2021), ultimately helping to aid attainment aswell as collectively working towards more sustainable futures.
References:
Crilly, J. (2019) Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration, Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal Vol 4 / Issue 1 pp.6-15. [Online] [Accessed 15 January 2022] Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/123/205
Warner, C., Arboine, J., Morrison, C., and Tran, D. (2021) Decolonising pedagogy and curriculum [Online] [Accessed 28 February 2022]Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/228986/AEM-Decolonising-pedagogy-and-the-curriculum-PDF-224KB.pdf