Indigenous Rights Relations: Design Alignment Through Cultural Humility

Through a four-part webinar series, learn how to practice with cultural humility. Free for ASLA members.
July 13, 2026
Education Practitioners Indigenous Landscape Architects

ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. Cloud Song: SCC Business School + Indigenous Culture Center. Scottsdale, Arizona. COLWELL SHELOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE.

Marion Brenner

Design is more than shaping places; it is about shaping relationships. Every project leaves an imprint on the land, on communities, and on future generations. 

Cultural humility is the discipline of approaching that responsibility with curiosity instead of certainty, reciprocity instead of extraction, and accountability instead of intention.

Through this four-part webinar series, landscape architects are invited not simply to learn about Indigenous Peoples, but to transform how they practice in service of healthier lands, stronger communities, and enduring right relations.

Framework

Rather than presenting cultural awareness as a checklist, this webinar series will frame cultural humility as an ongoing professional practice change that transforms how landscape architects listen, build relationships, make informed decisions, and help steward land through co-creation.

Based on the philosophy of MIG's Native Nation Building Studio—design is relationship, planning is healing, and landscape architecture is an act of reciprocity—the series will center Indigenous leadership, trauma-informed engagement, inherent Indigenous sovereignty, and accountability rather than simply providing historical information.

Theme

Creating landscapes that heal communities through practice that understand relationships, not projects, as the foundation of lasting change for future generations.

The overall webinar series progression will be from awareness to understanding to reflection to practice, highlighting that cultural humility is never ending, and something that needs to become part of our professional practice.

Webinar Series

Registration for the series is free for all ASLA members.

Reframing Practice: Land, Sovereignty, and the Role of the Landscape Architect - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Tuesday, July 28
3:00 p.m. (Eastern) / 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Members: FREE | Non-members: $55

Place, History, and Trauma-Informed Engagement to Build Right Relations - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Tuesday, August 18
3:00 p.m. (Eastern) / 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Members: FREE | Non-members: $55

Co-Creation, Indigenous Leadership, and Indigenous Knowledge - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Tuesday, September 8
3:00 p.m. (Eastern) / 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Members: FREE | Non-members: $55

Stewardship, Reciprocity, and Professional Responsibility - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Tuesday, December 1
3:00 p.m. (Eastern) / 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Members: FREE | Non-members: $55

Series Outcome

By the conclusion of the four-part series, participants should be able to:

  • Explain why cultural humility is an ethical obligation in landscape architecture.
  • Differentiate consultation, engagement, collaboration, and co-creation.
  • Understand why relationship building is important part of our work.
  • Apply trauma-informed principles to community engagement.
  • Recognize Inherent Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous self-determination as essential planning contexts.
  • Integrate Indigenous knowledge respectfully through relationship rather than extraction.
  • Evaluate projects using cultural humility indicators rather than relying solely on technical metrics.
  • Develop a personal and organizational roadmap for practicing cultural humility over time.

This framing aligns with ASLA’s commitments to climate action, environmental justice, and ethical practice while contributing to healing people, place and relationships grounding in respect, reciprocity, and Indigenous leadership.

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