Citizens Designing Their Future
The Foundation’s 1023 filing with the IRS begins with a plea from the environmental educator, David W. Orr. “We must love our children enough to design a world which instructs them toward community, ecology, responsibility, and joy.” A further section under the title; Cultivate: American Indian Communities continues with, “The Foundation intends to pursue a focused initiative to address the severe need for holistic, culturally appropriate, sustainable housing on American Indian reservations”.
The Navajo Challenge is the Foundation’s third education centered competition. The first two focused on innovative urban forms, followed by sustainable urban infill. The focus of the Navajo Challenge goes further to address the rebirth of a nation which it does by enlisting the talents of those who have been; 1)Nurtured by their culture; 2) Have had the benefit of college or university studies, and; 3) Will be returning to give their creative best to all that is yet to be.
An essay competition open to Navajo students who are currently registered in any program, at any college or university and in good standing.
The 21st Century Navajo Experience:
There is a very special two worlds clarity for Navajo students in the University whose experiences consist of the integrated multi-generational lineage of both family and culture in one world with the very different, specialized and segregated educational approach in the other.
Essay submissions should clearly address an issue and convey an idea for a thriving, sustainable pilot project as a solution for the future of the Navajo Nation and that would compliment the Navajo Culture, people and way of life. The essay should be no more than 2-3 pages and may be accompanied by photographs and/or drawings for addressing one or more of the followings:
• Economic development
• Employment / job training.
• Educational institutions of all kinds and at all levels.
• More localized decision-making and approvals.
• Land-use relationships that builds community and shortens or eliminates commute time and distance.
• Activities designed to promote a more healthy way of life.
• Concepts for localized, renewable energy sources, along with the conservation and reuse of water.
• Programs for creating a more interdependent and productive society.
• Land reform in keeping with 21st Century needs and opportunities.
• Community agriculture as a way of life.
• Ecological Tourism that favors the local economy while advancing, understanding and respecting the Navajo culture.
The jury selection will result in three cash awards, consisting of:
Gold: $1,500
Silver: $1,000
Bronze: $500
The Navajo Nation is the largest American Indian Nation in the United States. It encompasses more than 27,000 square miles of beautiful scenic land in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo people still very much practice their language, culture and traditions with pride and continue to grow as a Nation. Although the Navajo Nation faces many challenging issues, it continues to make plans for the its evolving future.
Invitation:
The Navajo Challenge is an essay competition open to Navajo students who are currently registered in any program, at any college or university and in good standing. This is a design-based competition, but not limited to the design of structures, places or objects. For purposes of this competition, think of everything as being part of design, including how we think, how we dream, how we educate and how we live our daily lives within our environment among family, friends and community.
Instructions to the Participants:
The essay should convey your vision for a thriving Navajo pilot project, which if implemented would give expression to the Navajo spirit and that may in some way draw inspiration from the “Beauty Way Chant.” You may be as detailed or as philosophic as you wish. The essay may be accompanied by photographs and/or drawings (either produced by you or selected from existing sources.) Just keep in mind that the jury will be looking for your proposal to be sufficiently clear to set the stage for an important solution beyond anything obvious or that which may already exist.
The 21st Century Navajo Experience:
This is a coming together of both the individual and the group, and with the timely and the timeless. There is a very special two worlds clarity for Navajo students in the University whose experiences consist of the integrated multi-generational lineage of both family and culture in one world with the very different, specialized and segregated educational approach in the other. The Navajo Challenge is an exciting opportunity to combine the timeless values of your heritage, with the privileged insights of your own experience and education.
Broadening the Definition of Sustainability:
There are two very different definitions. The more obvious approach to sustainability relates to sustainable methods and materials as set forth in most of the growing number of “green” codes and ordinances. These are generally capable of being tested, graded and given points to indicate a measure of success or failure. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is currently among the most prominent such measures.
Co-existing with these easier to measure aspects of technology, systems and materials is the greater influence of human behavior, which has few, if any easy measures. For example, what are the less measurable costs of self-destructive behaviors? What are the indirect costs of all kinds of services including everything that goes into public safety, the court system, along with all the remedial programs, including the cost of incarceration?
Such costly and self-defeating behaviors are well known. What isn’t so well known is the degree to which thoughtful design could have a positive influence in our communities. Not design limited to what “things” look like, but the design of experiences and structures for life-supporting relationships. At its best, this shared behavior is what results in the “sustainability” of caring communities. Given this distinction, how might what you propose move our future experiences in the direction of a more sustainable way of life, particularly suited to the future of the Navajo Nation and its people?
The Navajo Challenge has been designed around three inseparable experiences. That which is most significant is that you are related by blood to the Navajo culture. In addition to your centuries-old culture, you have experienced first-hand, the range of your people’s issues, including unemployment, inadequate housing, poverty, addiction, and all manner of related scarcities and behaviors that lead to cultural deprivation. Your third experience is that you are among the privileged few who can view the first two realities through the lens of your advanced education.
Given this background, it would be both helpful and wise for you to see the future of your nation and its people as being in your hands. To take a giant step in that direction, we invite you to participate in the 2013 Navajo Challenge. Unless you have already received an e-mail outlining the required response, you may access all details at www.twoworldsfoundation.org
The Navajo Challenge is a program of the public charity 501(c)3 Two Worlds Community Foundation. The focus of the Foundation’s design-based educational mission is centered on what all the many “pieces” of our daily decision-making add up becoming in the shared arena of humanity we call “community”.
Judging Criteria:
The jury will be looking for ideas that give form and further develop the 21st century expressions of the Navajo culture and its people. The winning entries will be those that seem most capable of inspiring ideas both specific enough to consider as well as sufficiently clear to engage the support of others.
Proposals in response to the Navajo Challenge must address at least two or more of the following issues, but need not be the main focus of your interest. Drawings or photographs may accompany the entries if they help to describe the intent of the proposals, but they are not a requirement of the Competition.
• Economic development that keeps the majority of proceeds on the reservation.
• Employment and related job training.
• Educational institutions of all kinds and at all levels.
• More localized decision-making and approvals, where appropriate.
• Land-use relationships that shorten or eliminate the wasteful back and forth commute.
• Activities designed to promote a more healthy way of life.
• Concepts for localized and renewable energy sources, along with the conservation and reuse of water.
• Programs for creating a more interdependent and productive society.
• Land reform in keeping with 21st Century needs and opportunities.
• Community agriculture as a way of life.
• An ample supply of better designed and more varied housing.
• Ecological Tourism that both favors the local economy while advancing understanding and respect for the Navajo culture.
The Navajo Challenge is part of a working research laboratory focused on regional issues, with a strong emphasis on ecologically sound relationships with nature. The Sponsor’s Two Worlds Community Foundation was established to look beyond current development conventions, which by their very nature become increasingly less effective in dealing with the problems and potentials of a future that will be increasingly different from our familiar past.