We respectfully acknowledge that the organizers of this event are respectively sustained by the unceded and unsurrendered homelands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and the Quw’utsun (Cowichan), Malahat , Ts’uubaa-asatx (formerly Lake Cowichan First Nation), xeláltxw (Halalt), Penelakut, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Pauquachin, Ditidaht and Pacheedaht.⁠⁠

The Sacred Landscapes Panel Discussion is an independent voluntary project organized by landscape designers Noora Hijra and Christen Oakes, bringing together an international panel of landscape design professionals and academics to reflect upon the design of cemeteries, memorials, and sacred landscapes within marginalized communities. Meanwhile, this YouTube recording has kindly been hosted by LEES+Associates to support the wider dissemination of this discussion.

During the event, the panel presented built works, shared design principles, and participated in a generous Q&A-style discussion period.

Whether you're a designer of landscapes, a professional in the bereavement sector, or simply curious to learn more about sacred places of profound cultural and environmental signficance, we hope you will find value in this conversation!

Panelists include:

Diane Jones Allen, D.Eng., FASLA, FELA PLA is Professor and Program Director of Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington. As Principal Landscape Architect with DesignJones LLC she was elevated to American Society of Landscape Architects Fellow (ASLA) in 2019. DesignJones LLC received the 2016 ASLA Community Service Award under her leadership. As part of a multi-disciplinary team, Diane won the 2020 SOM Foundation Research Prize focused on social justice in urban contexts through research titled “Reclaiming Black Settlements: A Design Playbook for Historic Communities in the Shadow of Sprawl”. Diane, co-edited “Design for Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity”, Island Press, 2017, and authored “Lost in the Transit Desert: Race, Transit Access, and Suburban Form”, Routledge Press, 2017. She was a 2021-2022 Garden and Landscape Studies Fellow at the Harvard University Dumbarton Oaks Research Institute working on her upcoming book “The Maroon Landscape: A Cultural Approach to Climate Resiliency”.

Jacky Bowring is Professor of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects. Jacky’s research and teaching interests are based around design theory and critique, and she practises as a landscape architect, involved in a range of memorial and cemetery projects including responses to the Canterbury Earthquakes (2011), and the Pike River Mine Disaster, as part of a team working with the Pike River Families, Ngāti Waewae, and the Department of Conservation. Her design work includes winning entries for the LA+ journal’s competition to design an island (2018), and in 2022 for her Future Islands entry to the climate change competition sponsored by NUWAO. Jacky is the author of A Field Guide to Melancholy (2009), Melancholy and the Landscape: Locating Sadness, Memory and Reflection in the Landscape (2016), and Landscape Architecture Criticism (2020).

Leila Zeppelin works as a senior landscape designer at Vancouver-based landscape architecture firm LEES+Associates where she specializes in the conception, detail design, and construction of cemeteries and memorials across Canada. Leila brings over 18 years experience in delivering projects on site, and her broad landscape experience has included her role as leading designer for the award winning Air India Memorial in Stanley Park and the Komagata Maru Monument in Harbour Green Park. Leila has applied her strong graphic skills and vision to meaningful public space projects including Derek Double Day Arboretum and worked on Mountain View Cemetery from design inception through project management. From open space planning to detailed design, Leila uses creative solutions to enrich the human experience.

MC:
Katey Houston | Director of Family Care at Return Home

Cemetery Trends: How They Will Affect Your Cemetery

Green Burial: From Concept to Reality

Planning Makes Perfect: An Introduction to Cemetery Master Planning

Cemetery Business Planning : The Basics

The Value of Good Cemetery Design

Sacred Landscapes Panel Discussion 2024

Cemeteries Data Request 101

Why Are Municipalities in the Cemetery Business?