Indigenous Mapping for Stewardship and Cultural Heritage Management

Course Description

This five-day course is designed for anyone working to ground Indigenous stewardship programs in community knowledge, oral history, ethnography, and mapping. This might include Indigenous stewardship staffs, their allies, and government / industry partners. Participants will design, conduct, and review a mock traditional land use study based on content relevant to participants’ work and interests.

This course uses methods that are tried and tested by Indigenous communities around Canada as effective ways to gather, preserve, and deploy information around traditional land use and knowledge. Learnings will be founded in the history and context of Indigenous communities and land rights in Canada today.

Trailmark Software (on both mobile and web applications) will be used to gather, record, organize, and query information. Trailmark software is an all-in-one innovative toolkit used by Indigenous communities to protect and manage their heritage and traditional territories.

Objectives

Through participation in this course, students will:

• Advance interview and field data collection skills
• Understand the how and why behind methods and tools designed to support Indigenous Land Stewardship
• Further understanding of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Gain hands on experience with data management platforms and field apps

Format

Class: 4 days; Field: 1 day

Days one to three are classroom-based and cover the following topics:

• Day 1: The History and Foundations of Mapping as it relates to Indigenous Land Stewardship
• Day 2: Digital Platforms for Participatory Mapping and Indigenous Knowledge
• Day 3: Oral History Mapping

Day four is field-based (outdoors, adjacent to classroom) and allows participants to practice recording real-time observations in the field.

Day five brings participants back to the classroom to work on analyzing and communicating results, including introduction to QGIS and creation of a map using field data collected the previous day.

Prerequisites

None

You Supply

Students should bring a pen and paper for taking notes, and an internet enabled smartphone.

Upcoming Deliveries and Registration Information

See our program schedule for a list of all upcoming NREP course deliveries. If this course is not currently noted in the schedule, please contact NREP@viu.ca to enquire about future opportunities. Prior to registering for any NREP course, please review the program's registration guidelines, including important refund policy information.