‘…recognising peoples, lands, and natures as sacred lays the foundation for building equitable and regenerative cities where both present and future generations can thrive. All sorts of possibilities flow from such a recognition, which would mean improving upon how we construct places, shape civic infrastructures, systems, and economies, and how we organise and govern ourselves.’
- Sacred Civics

How are we shaping our relationships, infrastructures and systems as if peoples, lands and natures were sacred? And how does the recognition of sacredness help us to envision and build for a world without borders?

Our second conversation framing Saturday School shares the work of artists and designers enacting sacredness as part of worldbuilding: Jane Engle, co-editor of Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities; Manuwu Tokai, indigenous artist and community builder, Fang-Jui Chang, strategic designer at Dark Matter Labs; and chaired by Joon-Lynn goh, co-director of Migrants in Culture.

We will explore stewarding seven generation cities, ancestral peace work, contracting for a more than human world, and sustaining inter-generational transformation.

Saturday School is a 3-year creative learning lab for organisers to embody, imagine and design for border abolition. For more information, see the Saturday School page.

Speaker Bios:

Jayne Engle

Jayne has a background in urban and regional planning, policy, development, and governance; philanthropy innovation; and social research and participatory practice. Jane co-authored the book Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities. Jayne’s passionate about futures of cities, infrastructure, and institutions, and is committed to decolonizing systems and opening possibilities for what that can mean. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning, Policy & Design from McGill University where she’s an Adjunct Professor.

Manuwi C Tokai

Manuwi C Tokai is an Indigenous Artist from the Kalinya Terewuyu nation. She has been a community builder within the anti racism activist movement in the Netherlands. She holds space for radical change with in institutions true prayer, art and conversations. Through her storytelling she advocates for the liberation of life and death and invites the people within institutions to be a part of liberation practice. A big part of that work is the remadritation of the bodies and body parts, art works, objects, artifacts etc.. of relatives that have been stolen from the motherland. Manuwi does this work in community and she calls the work: ’’Ancestrial Peace Work’’ and ‘’Remadriation’’.

Fang-Jui 'Fang-Raye' Chang

Fang-Jui 'Fang-Raye' Chang is a Responsible Innovation Lead and Strategic Designer at Dark Matter Labs, and co-leads the Radicle Civics portfolio, primarily focused on societal structural transition and new civics. Radicle Civics is designing and testing the tools, models, and interfaces to realise a vision of mutual interdependencies and expanding our understanding of civics to include human and more-than-humans in peer-to-peer, care-based relationships. TheyManu have experience in democratic innovation, public service design and prototyping, open policy-making and rule-making, and large-scale civic participation and facilitation.