Harvard University Graduate School of Design students Elsa Hoover, Zoë Toledo, Heidi Brandow, and Jaz Bonninou have come together to create the Harvard Indigenous Design Collective (HIDC), a group that "promotes design by and for Indigenous communities as foundational to the history, theory, and practice of design fields."

The four students all hail from Native American backgrounds themselves and, according to the The Harvard Gazette website, represent the largest cohort of Native American students to ever attend the school at once.

Bonnin, a student in the M.Des. program of Yankton Sioux, Blackfoot, Irish, Danish, French, Panamanian, and Mexican Native descent, tells The Harvard Gazette, "I am enrolled in a master’s of design program, focusing on issues of conservation and preservation. My goal is to specialize in designing atriums, courtyards, and indoor-outdoor garden spaces for small-scale residential, commercial and adaptive-reuse clientele.”

Hoover, an M.Arch. student of Anishinaabe (First Nations, Canada) and Finnish backgrounds, tells The Harvard Gazette she is studying the theory and the history of indigenous rights, issues of resource extraction, and conflicts that involve oil and water. 

M.Arch student Toledo is Diné (Navajo), comes to Harvard from the state of Utah, and is focused on "nontraditional ways of building."

Brandow is a student in the M.Des., Art, Design, and Public Domain program who is both Navajo and Hawaiian. Brandow's academic focuses include industrial design and Turkish language. 

HIDC, according to the group's Facebook page, "has gathered to support the education and work of our Indigenous architects, planners, designers, scholars, allies, and alumni of the Harvard Graduate School of Design."