York University is proud to welcome Regents’ and Distinguished Professor Theodore (Ted) Jojola, Creator and Director of the Indigenous Design and Community Planning Institute (iD+Pi) at the University of New Mexico, for a knowledge sharing trip to Toronto. He aims to learn from the conversations taking place at York University 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 EUC and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages, (CIKL), Prof. Jojola hosted two discussions this January on "PlaceKnowing and Rematriation: Indigenous Design and Planning." Notably, Indigenous planning employs a Seven Generations model that uses culture and identity to inform community development. PlaceKnowing is accordingly necessary to understand how communities construct their worldview to give and sustain meaning to the landscapes they inherit.

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

Through his research career, Prof. 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 Indigenous planning. He is currently working on Contemporary Indigenous Architecture: Local Traditions, Global Winds (University of New Mexico Press) as well developing a new treatise on the Fundamentals of Indigenous Planning.

A champion of the 7 Generation Model as a tool to understand reciprocal learning, Prof. Jojola plans to shape meaningful dialogue and better outcomes for our collective futures. The 7 Generation 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, Prof. Jojola and the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute (iD+Pi) are working on exciting local and international initiatives, and currently creating an online certification in Indigenous Community Planning. Prof. Jojola holds a PhD in Political Science from University of Hawaii at Manoa, a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BFA in Architecture from the University of New Mexico.