The aim of this web application is to draw attention to the pressing issue of language endangerment. We hope that the map illustrates the huge number of distinct languages around the world in the present day, and implies that there is much to be lost, socially and culturally, if the […]
application • database • endangered language • Glottolog • indigenous language • interactive • mappingThe Glottolog Data Explorer: Mapping the world’s languages
We present THE GLOTTOLOG DATA EXPLORER, an interactive web application in which the world’s languages are mapped using a JavaScript library in the ‘Shiny’ framework for R (Chang et al., 2016). The world’s languages and major dialects are mapped using coordinates from the Glottolog database (Hammarström et al., 2016). The […]
2016 • application • database • endangered language • Glottolog • indigenous language • interactive • mappingDecolonizing geographies of power: indigenous digital counter-mapping practices on turtle Island
This paper addresses the decolonizing potential of Indigenous counter-mapping in the context of (what is now called) Canada.After historicizing cartography as a technique of colonial power, and situating Indigenous counter-mapping as an assertion of political and intellectual sovereignty, we examine the digital map of Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Plains Cree for Edmonton, Alberta) […]
2016 • Amiskwaciwâskahikan • Canada • counter-mapping • decolonization • digital • mappingArteria – A Regional Cultural Mapping Project in Portugal
This paper discusses the relation between cultural mapping and participatory community cultural mapping, proposing the integration of a mobile device application (app) in the cultural mapping process of the Arteria project. This application aims to expand the notion of cultural appropriation by exploring how citizens can make crucial contributions to […]
application • Arteria • community mapping • cultural heritage • intangible • mapping • mobile • participatoryWathaurung use technology to take control of their cultural heritage
For over 25,000 years, the land around Ballarat, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula has been inhabited by the Wathaurung people. Traditionally, important cultural knowledge was passed down the generations through word of mouth. Today, a simple yet groundbreaking piece of mapping software is allowing the Wathaurung to pinpoint and record […]
2013 • Australia • CrestSX • cultural heritage • cultural protocols • culture | preservation • mapping • software • WathaurungCreating Digital Maps to Help Preserve Cultural Heritage of Kamchatka Community
Originally published on the UA News website by Yara Askar (January 29, 2014). Excerpt University of Arizona anthropologist Benedict Colombi is leading a public-private project to help a Russian indigenous people preserve its language and cultural knowledge. The workshop and mapping project in Kamchatka stemmed from UA anthropologist Benedict Colombi’s […]
Google • indigenous / traditional knowledge • indigenous communities • Itelmen • Kamchatka • mappingTechnological Leap-frogging in the Congo Basin, Pygmies and Global Positioning Systems in Central Africa
Abstract It is surprising that many Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin, though unable to read the numbers on banknotes or write their own names, have begun to use handheld computers attached to global positioning systems (GPS). In describing this remarkable case of technological leap-frogging I will summarise the historical context that led to this […]
conservation • GPS • mapping • technologyIndigenous communities deploy high-tech mapmaking to staunch global land grab
With governments, loggers, miners and palm oil producers poaching their lands with impunity, indigenous leaders from 17 countries gathered on a remote island in Sumatra this week to launch a global fight for their rights that will take advantage of powerful mapping tools combined with indigenous knowledge to mark traditional […]
GIS • GPS • indigenous • land rights • mappingCommunity Maps Can Empower Indigenous Peoples to Assert Land Rights
An Australian-Filipino mining company during a September 2011 public consultation mobilized its “experts.” Their goal: to persuade local officials and indigenous and local communities about the “safety, merits and sustainability” of the company’s US$5.8-billion project in southern Philippines. The “experts” were armed with figures, graphs and pictures all showing the […]
community mapping • indigenous communities • land rights • mappingUNIMAS team experiments with community mapping
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) is no stranger to rural ICT4D projects in Malaysia. Known best for their award-winning eBario project, a remote telecenter that brought internet to the indigenous highlands of Borneo in the late 90s, UNIMAS has a long, successful track-record of participatory community development projects. An article in […]
Borneo • eBario • ICT4D • mapping • Sarawak • UNIMASAmazon Conservation Team
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) was created in 1995 with the conviction that if international rainforest conservation efforts are to succeed, the active and meaningful participation of indigenous people is essential. With the guidance of tribal elders, shamans, traditional authorities, and leading western conservationists, ACT has developed a uniquely successful […]
Amazon • conservation • indigenous / traditional knowledge • mapping • participatoryPama-Nyungan reconstruction: Exploration of Australian Linguistic Prehistory
Abstract The earliest detailed records of Australia’s indigenous languages date from approximately two hundred years ago, and therefore our only access to the prehistory of Australia’s indigenous past is through reconstruction in archeology and linguistics. While we know that humans have lived in Australia for more than 40,000 years, we […]
aboriginal • Australia • Google • indigenous language • linguistic prehistory • mapping • Pama-Nyungan reconstructionAboriginal Mapping Network
The Aboriginal Mapping Network (AMN) was established in 1998 as a joint initiative of the Gitxsan and Ahousaht First Nations and Ecotrust Canada. Over the years the network has grown from its humble beginnings as a knowledge sharing forum for local First Nations technicians, leaders and decision makers to become […]
aboriginal • Ahousaht • First Nations • GIS • Gitxsan • indigenous / traditional knowledge • mapping • networkAboriginal Indigenous Languages Map
David R Horton is the creator of the Indigenous Language Map. This map is based on language data gathered by Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS and Auslig/Sinclair, Knight, Merz, (1996). The map attempts to represent all of the language or tribal or nation groups of Indigenous people of Australia. The Indigenous […]
aboriginal • AIATSIS • Australia • indigenous language • language map • mappingFirst Peoples’ Language Map of B.C.
British Columbia is home to 203 First Nations communities and an amazing diversity of Indigenous languages; approximately 60% of the First Nations languages of Canada are spoken in B.C. You can access indexes of all the languages, First Nations and Community Champions through the top navigation on all pages of […]
British Columbia | Canada • First Nations • indigenous language • language | preservation • mappingOpen Street Map
OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the whole world. Unlike proprietary datasets like Google Map Maker, the OpenStreetMap license allows free access to the full map dataset. This massive amount of data can be downloaded in full, but also is available in immediately-useful forms like maps and commercial services. […]
community mapping • data collection • GPS • mapping • open accessMap Kibera
Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, was a blank spot on the map until November 2009, when young Kiberans created the first free and open digital map of their own community. Map Kibera has now grown into a complete interactive community information project. view map at openstreetmap.org
community mapping • Kibera • mapping • Nairobi | KenyaMapBox
MapBox lets you design fast and beautiful interactive maps and share them on the web and mobile devices. MapBox is the whole package for making maps, from the worldwide street-level basemap MapBox Streets – powered by OpenStreetMap – to the open source map design studio TileMill for making custom maps […]
mapping • open source • visualizationUshahidi
The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.
crisis • mapping • open source • UshahidiNunaliit Atlas Framework
From the nunaliit.org website: The Nunaliit Atlas Framework The Nunaliit Atlas Framework aims to make it easy to tell stories and highlight relationships between many different forms of information from a variety of sources, using maps as a central way to connect and interact with the data. The Nunaliit Atlas […]
mapping • Nunaliit • storytellingReviving Our Culture, Mapping Our Future
The story behind a group of indigenous communities from around the world, who are using new methods to communicate their message to the rest of the world.
culture • indigenous / traditional knowledge • indigenous communities • mapping • mupo • South AfricaNew technology maps Inuit knowledge: “A profound tool for reversing discrimination”
OTTAWA — About 25 kilometres southeast of Arctic Bay, on the northern shore of Adams Sound, there is a place called Qajuutinnguaq. It means “Hill shaped like a chisel.” You wouldn’t find it on most official maps because official maps of Nunavut contain huge swaths of unnamed land. And most […]
2013 • Canada • Inuit • Inuktitut • mapping • open source • oral traditionChumpi and the Waterfall: the future of the Achuar of Chicherta
Chumpi and the Waterfall Excerpt from the Achuar movie site: Chumpi and the Waterfall (TeleAndes) was filmed in the Achuar community of Chicherta in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, the last community on the Huasaga River before the border with Ecuador. This is a headwater area, where the forest is full […]
Achuar • GPS • mapping • PeruTrading Bows and Arrows for Laptops? The Paiter Surui People & Google Earth…
I’ve been following the curious story of Chief Almir Surui and his relationship with Google Earth since 2007. I was delighted to see that Mashable ran an article about the Pater Surui which allowed me to catch up with what has transpired over the last five years (however, I was […]
Amazon • Brazil • Chief Almir | Surui • culture | preservation • Google • mapping • Pater SuruiPacific Intangible Cultural Heritage Mapping Toolkit
Introduction The Pacific Intangible Cultural Heritage Mapping Toolkit was developed by Sipiriano Nemani, Policy and Planning Analyst at the Department of National Heritage, Culture and Arts in Suva, Fiji, and commissioned by the Human Development Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. The toolkit is based on Mr Nemani’s […]
2011 • cultural heritage • Fiji • indigenous / traditional knowledge • intangible • knowledge systems • mapping • Pacific • toolkit