Upendo Kowero - How does culture influence planning of cities and regions?

Upendo is a Chagga woman from the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Her diverse upbringing across many countries has nurtured her passion for and proficiency in three languages, as well as her particular interest in how built environments can support cohesive, equitable and productive communities. Upendo has a Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning with honours, Masters of Development Practice, Politics of Global Development, Graduate Certificate in Mediation and Conflict Resolution and is IAP2 accredited.

Upendo has over 15 years of professional planning experience across the areas of strategic planning, policy formulation and implementation, and development assessment. She has extensive experience researching, drafting and implementing State policies through the Queensland planning framework.

Upendo has she worked across a diversity of strategic projects with several Aboriginal Shire Councils.  During her time with the Queensland Government, Upendo was on the advancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests in land use planning project steering committee as the local plan making/amendment process expert. She also drafted the Planning Act 2016 planning scheme template . Upendo recognises and continues to learn and discover improvements needed to truly advance Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests in the Queensland planning and development framework.   

I chat to Upendo about:

1. Her upbringing and your journey to Brisbane
2. What led her to studying planning
3. Her university experiences - what were some of the challenges faced in understanding the western approach to development and land use?
4. Her tips and/or advice for current international planning students and/or academics
5. What role does culture have on the Qld planning system? – what are some of the shortfalls?
6. Her advice for planning practitioners in navigating culture in planning

A piece of advice from Upendo – "As planners, we professionally organise places and people and consequently end up putting people into different categories/boxes. I think it’s important to remember that these are just organizational categories and not people’s identities. It is also confusing when new categories are developed and used without your understanding…for me, a key one is People of Colour (POC) which has created a lot of debate on who it captures. It’s also vitally important to be cautious when using them in public or consultative environments because people could take offense or be uncomfortable to be a representative of that category (i.e. grouping of people based on one or two elements)."

Great advice!