Steven J. Zuiker, Fikile Nxumalo, and Tia Madkins
This presentation shares the early stages of a solidarity-driven codesign (SDC) process that supports climate-resilient food systems through school gardening in three South African ecoregions—subtropics, grasslands, and savanna. Working with vulnerable Black communities across KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Limpopo provinces, we examine how communities integrate Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledges (ILEK), climate science, and lived experiences to inform locally grounded, intergenerational strategies for ecological thriving. Guided by African Indigenous methodologies and SDC principles, our research employs iterative design circles to foster community-led development of climate-smart gardens. These design circles centre local relationships and knowledge systems, seek to disrupt normative power dynamics, and support collaborative, regenerative engagements with land. This paper reports thematic findings from the first round of design circles and highlights how both conventional (e.g., composting, curriculum integration) and novel (e.g., educational technologies, Indigenous food experiments) ideas emerge within and across communities. We show how novel opportunities—such as mobile apps to engage youth or scientific studies of Indigenous vegetables—reflect the transformative potential of codesign when deeply rooted in local goals and values. Our analysis emphasises that codesign is not a one-off event but an evolving, relational practice capable of mobilizing systemic change over time. Further, we consider how communities’ differing articulations of similar ideas point to the importance of contextual nuance in scaling learning and innovation across a multi-sited network. Ultimately, we argue that SDC offers a promising model for education-centred, climate-responsive systems change that interweaves diverse knowledge traditions. We conclude by posing critical questions about how to sustain, scale, and deepen these community-based processes of learning and transformation across time and place.
Keywords: Relationality, Solidarity-Driven Codesign Gardening, Climate Science, Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledges