Lived experiences are central to preserving Indigenous cultural heritage, shaping identity, and enabling knowledge transmission. Globalisation creates major challenges for Indigenous communities by pressuring them to conform to dominant cultures, leading to the loss of traditions and practices. For the ≠Khomani San of Witdraai, Askham, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, roadside conversations are essential forms of informal knowledge exchange that enable storytelling, cultural adaptation, and identity assertion. These spontaneous interactions at roadside stalls provide unique sites for authentic knowledge transfer that are distinct from formal museum narratives or heritage tourism encounters. Their academic importance remains untracked in discussions about design education, cultural preservation, and the social impact of social documentary photography and changes. This study examined how roadside conversations function as knowledge-sharing instruments, showing how cultural knowledge is preserved outside institutional settings. Using ethnographic fieldwork, observation, and informal interviews, this study demonstrates how lived experiences contribute to design methodologies, ethical storytelling, and cultural sustainability. The findings reveal that lived experiences provide a flexible, community-centred model for preserving cultural knowledge as a grassroots alternative to formal documentation. These interactions support representational and participatory learning in sustainable design practices, highlighting their significance beyond stories. By connecting informal knowledge with modern social documentary design processes, this study shows how designers, educators, and professionals can facilitate Indigenous knowledge transfer using ethical methods. This study argues that knowledge transfer based on lived experiences should be integrated with social documentary photography and design as an active learning process rather than static records. Ethical design practices, including Indigenous council acknowledgement and community introductions, can enhance these experiences while ensuring that communities maintain control over how researchers and tourists view their cultures. This study contributes to design education, social documentary studies, and ethical storytelling, calling for the recognition of Indigenous lived experiences as essential elements of cultural preservation and sustainable design.