Welcome to our video: Indigenous Mapping. We appreciate your interest and look forward to answering any questions you may have. In addition, we are very interested to know about other similar projects. If you are involved in a related project or if you are interested in joining our project please contact me, Sharon Nelson-Barber, the PI, at snelson@wested.org. Happy viewing!

This is really interesting.  I'd love to know more about what communities have used this tool so far, and whether the use of a shared tool has led to cross-community conversations? 

I'm curious about how you decided which modifications to make to FieldScope to make it more suitable for preserving and sharing indigenous knowledge. For example,  your video highlights a feature that allows users to pick which audiences get to see which content. Where did that idea come from? Did you have discussions with indigenous communities during the formative phase of your project? Thanks for sharing your work!

Thank you for your interest Victor. Yes, we are working directly with Indigenous communities and the modifications were devised in accordance with their needs.

What a wonderful way to make learning relevant to students as they explore their own places and traditions! I live in WI and wonder how this resource would work for the native American tribes in our state and in the midwest region? It was a new resource for me. Thank you for sharing your work.

Our sense is that this tool would be helpful for Indigenous students and others everywhere!

This looks really interesting! I love the idea of utilizing place-based resources.

Thanks for your video, Sharon. I'm curious about how you have used evaluation to inform the development or use of the tool. In particular, have indigenous ways of knowing informed your evaluation thinking?

Yes, we are informed by the Indigenous Evaluation Framework available thru the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

What a beautiful video! Have you been in touch with the Half Earth Project? E.O. Wilson has brought together a group of scientists who are trying to save the earth by focusing on half the earth. Specifically, this involves indigenous lands. The data that you are collecting is so important. Are you sharing your data with Half Earth scientists?

I was fascinated by this video. I may have a bias since I spend 3 years living in Chuuk. One of my vivid memories of living in Chuuk was learning the importance of places and the names of places. I am happy to see how your team is starting with local knowledge as a basis for your efforts. 

Sharon, I was thinking about community discourse processes in connection with your work.  (Of course we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in this presentation, even with the lively discussion!).  Is there a sense that in the communities you are working with, some people are real "authorities" or generally considered experts -- to whom other people "defer" or bring questions as they capture their knowledge about their landscape?  How does that support (or maybe inhibit???) the capture and sharing of the community's science knowledge?  Are there training processes or apprenticeships (e.g. for traditional medicine or other skills/expertise) that you tap into — or need to  negotiate with?

An important question. There certainly are appropriate interactive protocols operating in each community. The non-community members on our team have some insights, but don't claim to "know." However, we work closely with community liaisons.  Working side-by-side  and in collaboration with community members, they identify the needs and guide the processes. The features developed were at their direction. There also is some fluidity, should things need massaging.  Protocols are recognizable and figure into our ongoing assessments of the work.

What a fabulous project. Thank you to the PIs and funding organizations to make it possible.  I am hopeful that you find great success and that indigenous populations find it valuable.

What a great project!  Thank you for sharing.  I was wondering what kind of outcomes you've seen from this project, if any, at this point in time.  I saw you responded that the focus right now is in the Pacific - how have indigenous communities in that area been using the data entered into the system?  Do you have any examples of local issues that communities have been working on given the access to data in this system?

Innovative and thoughtful project design.  Nice work!  Thanks for sharing it with such a nice video.  

Great project.

Hi team,

After hearing about your project over the years, it was great to learn more about it through your video. I am interested to know more about how the modified FieldScope tools is currently being used in classrooms and with students. It looks like there are lots of possibilities.