The inaccessibility of global cultural heritage limits its potential to shape identities and inform design, a challenge compounded by historical power imbalances in knowledge production. This paper proposes a design education framework integrating Indigenous knowledge systems, critical theory, and human-centred design. It addresses digital cultural heritage preservation in a postcolonial context using a South African case study. Drawing on a Title Sequence Design Module at a South African university in a Digital Design department, we developed a project collaboration with a South African art museum that explores motion-based digital narratives to democratise access to heritage, preserve culture and traditions, disrupt colonial legacies, and cultivate ethical designers. The model anchors Indigenous knowledge systems for culturally embedded heritage preservation; critical theory to interrogate power structures in knowledge representation; and human-centred design for a cyclical process of empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing cultural narratives. This approach emphasises participatory engagement with cultural custodians to ensure ethical digital transformations, guiding students to navigate the tensions between creative reinterpretation and historical authenticity while addressing risks of cultural appropriation. This study reviews the literature, interrogates heritage, education, and design paradigms, reflects on teaching and learning classroom experiences, and offers insights and recommendations for curricular and institutional innovation. Key questions arise about balancing reinterpretation with authenticity, the ethics of digital narratives, and perceptions of the original cultural communities. This paper highlights that engaging custodians mitigates the reduction of artefacts to aesthetics, fostering meaningful reinterpretations. This framework attempts to contribute to responsible design education by offering educators a methodology to guide students in ethically preserving and reinterpreting cultural heritage through digital narratives, ensuring socially responsible practices across diverse contexts.