An important forum entitled “Mapping for Indigenous Advocacy and Empowerment” is to be held in Vancouver, Canada from March 11-14. The International Forum on Indigenous Mapping is aimed primarily at indigenous leaders, elders, communityrepresentatives, and technicians who produce maps to secure the control, use, and protection of their land and resources, and to maintain centuries-old cultural knowledge. Topics to be explored include: mapping as a basis for negotiation and litigation; the history of indigenous mapping and counter-mapping; mapping technologies; mapping as a tool for cultural education and revitalization; and the risks and challenges of mapping.
The Forum will bring together two hundred indigenous representatives from around the world who are engaged in mapping, as well as individuals who assist them in these efforts. Establishing connections and exchanging knowledge between participants is one of the forum’s chief objectives.
Sessions will be divided into two interwoven strands. Advocacy mapping is designed to influence audiences and decision makers outside the indigenous community conducting mapping work. Empowerment mapping is directed more at indigenous community and its own decision makers. Speakers will also explore the negative implications of mapping in an effort to foster critical thinking about the use and consequences of maps.
The forum will include representatives of the Indigenous Communities Mapping Initiative, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, the Ford Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the Limahuli Gardens and Preserve, the Santa Clara Pueblo, the Tides Foundation, the Village of Chevak, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Ian McIntosh is the senior editor at Cultural Survival.
