Clyde Doyle:

Clyde Doyle boasts over twenty years of experience across multiple creative sectors. Presently, he teaches design at IADT and co-chairs the MA Design for Change program at George Brown College in Toronto, collaborating with the Institute without Boundaries (IwB). His journey since 1995 spans roles in industrial design, model making, fine art fabrication, and production design for film, TV, and theatre. Currently pursuing a PhD in Design at NCAD, Clyde focuses on developing non-anthropocentric design methods to promote ecological practices. He also serves as Principal Investigator at IADT’s Public Design Lab, dedicated to design for social and public good.

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Justyna Doherty:

Justyna Doherty is an interdisciplinary artist and designer whose research focuses on futures literacy, long-term thinking, and the interconnectedness of past and future. Her work critically engages with intergenerational trauma, decolonial frameworks, and ecological sustainability, exploring how art can foster resilience and envision equitable futures. Committed to inspiring hope in times of uncertainty, she views art as a key tool for societal reflection and transformative change.

Justyna holds an MFA in Painting in Expanded Practice from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), an MA in Design for Change from IADT, Ireland, and an MA in Media Education from UKSW, Warsaw, Poland. www.justynadoherty.com

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has intensified colonial narratives portraying the region as underdeveloped and dependent, casting displaced populations as passive recipients of aid. These reductive tropes, deeply rooted in imperialist ideologies, perpetuate hierarchical worldviews and shape global responses to war refugees. Projects “Threads of Resilience” and “Future Forests” disrupts these frameworks through community-engaged arts practices, fostering cultural renewal, resilience, and envisioning of equitable futures.

The project features participatory workshops conducted in Ukrainian refugee camps in Stradbally (2023-2025) and Naas (2025), as well as interventions at NCAD, IMMA, and Warsaw's Palace of Culture. Collaborative activities with Polish universities expand its transnational scope. A central element involves, among others, crafting Motanka dolls—traditional Ukrainian artefacts made from symbolic materials like refugee camp sheets and natural elements. These workshops reconnect participants with cultural heritage and nature, fostering collective storytelling and co-creating hopeful futures. Incorporating nature connection emphasizes the therapeutic potential of engaging with the environment, linking personal and ecological resilience.

By positioning art as a tool for cultural renewal, the projects challenge entrenched colonial perspectives, while public exhibitions and performances amplify these efforts. These platforms engage broader audiences in critically reflecting on their roles in sustaining or dismantling imperial structures.

Doherty and Doyle’s performative workshop at the RUTA conference in Ukraine (June 2024) embodied an act of transnational solidarity, emphasizing futures thinking and nature connection as resilience-building tools. This presentation will explore how participatory art, nature connection, and futures thinking can serve as decolonial strategies, fostering cultural renewal, solidarity, and collective healing. By bridging Irish, Polish, and Ukrainian contexts, it contributes to transnational dialogues on dismantling colonial legacies and envisioning inclusive and equitable futures.