'Participation is not enough'

Participatory design seeks to involve users as partners in the design process. However, for traditionally disenfranchised groups participation may not be enough. Over the past year, we've worked with Indigenous leaders and end-users to develop a process by which HCI practitioners can pass the reins to Indigenous people to lead their own technology projects with the support of designers as needed. We present a brief summary of our experience and reflections on this budding user leadership process so far. We describe key steps (ie. user-led recruitment, user-leader training, and user-led workshops) as well as some challenges and takeaways, in order to contribute to the advancement of processes for Indigenous-led co-design, and user-leadership for the empowerment of disenfranchised communities around the world.