nyangalazolho. Policy Designer, Strategist, Decolonial Futurist.
Nyangala is a Policy Learning Designer at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL), based between Barcelona, CAT & London, UK. They support policymakers and wider policy communities to share and learn from new ideas and evidence. Nyangala is pursuing a PhD in Design at BAU, Barcelona, CAT. In 2023, they received a research fellowship from the Creative Impact Research Centre Europe (CIRCE), Berlin, DE. Nyangala previously worked at Nesta, UK.
Nyangala (pronounced “knee-angle-ah”) is an Aboriginal Australian name that means eclipse of the moon. ⊙
‘Most of what you learn will need to be experienced to be fully understood’
The Lost Innovative Potential: Embodied pathways for the policy(maker)
June 2022 - Present
Women, minoritised groups and children from low-income families do not participate in the innovative economy at the same rate as white men from high income families. Across the developed world, if marginalised communities were to invent (the first step in the process of innovation) at the same rate as children from the top 1% of earners, the rate of innovation would be transformative. Unlocking this untapped potential would benefit both people and planet, so why has policy(making) struggled to make progress on this front?
Many perspective lenses may be used to understand the complex challenge of the Lost Innovative Potential; from the lack of evidence-based approaches to underutilised data. Most point to a grander challenge that faces policymakers who are unable to navigate uncertain terrains. Embodied pathways for the policy(maker) researches ways to layer and generate new knowledge(s) by testing experimental sensemaking techniques with the aim of enabling more inclusive innovation systems.
The Rural Renaissance
Aug - 2023
Four future scenarios were co-created with accompanying artefacts (Objects of the Future) during 5 days in Oslen, Bulgaria. The aim was to begin to develop resilience and sustainability within a growing community of families and young people located or interested in relocating to rural parts of the Bulgarian countryside. Desires and anxieties related to the far future were explored through collective provocations, uncovering tensions around how to form new ways of being that might foster a better quality of life; build shared values and greater stewardship of land and place; amongst others.
This initial futures intervention touched on themes related to how power is shared as collective ventures grow; job and livelihood prospects linking rural places to periphery and mainstream economies and pedagogical questions related to raising children outside of urban institutions. More interventions have been planned for the future, subject to funding.
Barro
Forthcoming
This brand and product line merging decolonial research with ancestral practices of (self-to-system)care and ritual. In this project, product fuses ancient knowledge with craft and makers practices that connect people and places to stories unearthed as universal gifts.
