The Dreamcatcher Informatics project
In 2009-2010, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport recommended the Dreamcatcher Informatics project (under the auspices of the Department of Environment and Resources Studies at the University of Waterloo) for funding under the Creative Communities Prosperity Fund – a $50,000 grant. Here is the project description from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport website:
This project brings together a team of researchers from the university, the Centre for Community Mapping and two Ontario Aboriginal communities. They will build a functioning web-based system with the working title Dreamcatcher Informatics. This system will provide specific knowledge on implementing cultural mapping for First Nation communities. It will support community-based mapping services that empower Aboriginal cultural mapping and community planning and support remote land use consultation between community, agency and development proponents with a premise of sustainable community economic development.
In addition, the project will lead to the preparation of Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation cultural mapping and the development and implementation of a cultural resources plan as part of a broader community-based land use planning process. Both processes will ensure the proper interpretation and application of Traditional Knowledge and western science in cultural preservation in the face of resource developmental processes. Ultimately, the project is expected to generate a useful prototype that other Aboriginal communities across Ontario can modify. The Fort Albany First Nation will introduce and pilot the resulting work.
Links of interest
Dreamcatcher development site: http://www.comap.ca/fnmaps1/
Centre for Community Mapping: http://www.comap.ca/
Fort Albany First Nation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Albany,_Ontario
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation: http://www.newcreditfirstnation.com/
