INDIGO is an open platform that connects designers worldwide in an effort to explore our understanding of indigenous design. It provides an online forum for sharing ideas and information, fostering discourse among participants, and contributing to the furtherance of indigenous and local design.

Through its participants and projects, INDIGO seeks to gain some insight into what makes design distinctive to its home, the connections to the place where it is made and for whom it is made. As more and more designers work within a global context seemingly without borders, INDIGO provides an online medium for design practice as it contributes to the formation of national cultural identities.

Join the networkINDIGO is highly participatory and collaborative in its approach and welcomes contributions and commentary from designers everywhere.

INDIGO is an Icograda-led initiative of the IDA (International Design Alliance). The INDIGO Secretariat is headquartered in Montreal (Canada).

www.indigodesignnetwork.org

Icograda is the world body for professional communication design and a partner of the International Design Alliance. www.icograda.org

About INDIGO

What is Indigenous design? The notion of indigenous and local design is frequently contested, hard won and usually indeterminate. It often includes themes of colonisation, migration, politics, language, history, identity and conditions such as the economy and natural resources. To address this notion and to further explore its meaning and interpretation throughout the world, INDIGO was born.

Language is not only a product of human life –it is a pre-requisite that humans require to form relationships. As a fundamental form of expression, language binds us together.

But not all languages are spoken. A language can be visual - made up of complex ideas of truth deeply rooted in symbols, custom and imagery. Mother Tongue is about the power of language –verbal and visual, formal and informal. First language. Native language. It honours languages at risk of being lost in our globalising society and those that have survived the forces of colonisation.

Mother Tongue is a healing process–stimulating creative dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous designers, students of design, poets and writers. Mother Tongue celebrates that underlying our languages, we are the same after all.

Mother Tongue also offers a forum for all designers to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design.

Mother Tongue is a cross-cultural platform to open discussion around the role of contemporary indigenous design. It encourages collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people’s culture in our visual world of this 21 century.

Claude Levi-Strauss said that no one culture is more advanced than another, each is unique and there is much to learn from everyone.

‘We need a culture shift. Can design reconcile differences? Does it hold this power? If design has the power to market products and services that make consumers consume, then I am sure it can.

Let’s begin a journey of understanding – fostering a new respect for life, nature and the natural world. Let’s value the principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity and kinship.’

- David Lancashire, Melbourne (Australia)

Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue is an open, multidisciplinary, online exhibition. You may submit multiple entries, but each submission must be a single piece. The form of response is yours to determine–a poster, a photograph, a poem, a product, a piece of architecture–that interprets the spirit of Mother Tongue.

WHO CAN ENTERMother Tongue is an open to all. To participate you must create a user account or log in if you are already part of the network.

KEY DATESSubmissions will be accepted starting 12 Jul 2010The deadline for entries is 1 Dec 2010

FEEThere is no fee to participate.

EXHIBITIONSubmissions will be presented in a digital gallery on indigodesignnetwork.org

COPYRIGHTAs the creator of your submission, you retain all intellectual property rights associated with your entry, except those as outlined below.

By submitting your entry, you acknowledge that your piece is original work and does not infringe on the work of any other individual or group. If your entry uses other’s work, you acknowledge that you have obtained permission to use these components.

By submitting your entry, you grant INDIGO and Icograda royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide rights to reproduce and distribute your submission for the purposes of promoting Mother Tongue and INDIGO.

Call for submissions

– Image and audio files should be uploaded through the online submission form.

– For video submissions upload your file to the Mother Tongue group on YouTube. Take note of your YouTube video ID, which you will need to provide in the online submissions form.

ACCEPTED FILE TYPES

Image poster, illustration, photograph, short text, poetry or prose:– Format: JPG or GIF files – Dimensions: 792 px wide x 1224 px high – Resolution: 150DPI – Colour space: RGB

Video– H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format– 640x480 (SD) or 1280x720 (HD) for 4:3 & 16:9

aspect ratios.– Frame rate should be the same as original video– Sampling rate: 44.1KHz for MP3/AAC audio

Audio– Upload file to INDIGO website– Length: 3 min– Format: .mp3– Size: 10MB

CONTACT

Indigo Secretariatc/o Icograda455 Saint Antoine Ouest, SS10Montreal, QuebecH2Z 1J1 CanadaT: +1 514 448 4949 x 230F: +1 514 448 4948E: info@indigodesignnetwork.org

Participation and contribution Diala LadaProject ManagerE: diala@indigodesignnetwork.org

Technical enquiries about the websiteMs. Brooke van Mossel-ForresterOnline Communications OfficerE: brooke@indigodesignnetwork.org

Cover image: Charles Kroehle (1876?-1902) et Georg Huebner (1862-1935)Indien Chipivo, fleuve PachietaAmazonie, Pérou, 1888Tirage sur papier albuminé / 13,4 x 10,4cmMusée du quai Branly, Paris© Photo musé du quai Branly© Editions R.M.N., Paris 2006

How to Submit