Abstract
Terrastories is a free and open-source participatory mapping software enabling communities to build a database of place-based stories and visualize these on a digital map. Co-designed with Indigenous communities, Terrastories leverages a simple interface to serve the focused needs of its targeted users: to map information that is culturally relevant and important to communities. Terrastories allows for uploading information in different multimedia formats and protects the information by granting users different levels of access. Terrastories is easy-to-use, requiring a low level of technical expertise. Knowledge on Indigenous issues, data sovereignty, and ethics are important to guide information gathering methodologies to build a Terrastories map. These concepts solicit novel interpretations of conventional terms such as ‘data accuracy’. A case study is presented in this chapter that outlines how Terrastories is being used by an Indigenous water research program from Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada called Ohneganos Ohnegahdę:gyo.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
As per King (2007), “…Haudenosaunee is the Seneca word to denote the ‘People of the Longhouse’ and is sanctioned by the Confederacy of Six Nations to be the word used when referring to the Confederacy. The Mohawk word is Rotinohnsonni”.
- 2.
In Section 35 of the consolidated Constitution Act of 1982, Canada legally groups Indigenous people into three broad categories. As per Section 35.(2), “In this Act ‘aboriginal peoples of Canada’ includes Indian, Inuit , and Metis Peoples of Canada” (Government of Canada, 2013). The “Indian” category is now commonly referred to as “First Nations”.
References
Cunsolo Willox, A., Harper, S. L., & Edge, V. L. (2012). Storytelling in a digital age: Digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom. Qualitative Research, 13(2), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112446105
Daes, E.-I. (1994). Special Rapporteur: Protection of the heritage of Indigenous people. United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Dei, G. J. S., Hall, B. L., & Rosenberg, D. G. (2000). Indigenous knowledges in global contexts: Multiple readings of our world. University of Toronto Press.
First Nations Information Governance Center (FNIGC). (2021). The First Nations Principles of OCAP®. https://fnigc.ca/ocap-training/
Government of Canada. (2013). A consolidation of the Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982 (Vol. 94, Issue 4). The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc.
Hunt, D., & Stevenson, S. A. (2017). Decolonizing geographies of power: Indigenous digital counter-mapping practices on turtle Island. Settler Colonial Studies, 7(3), 372–392. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2016.1186311
Kemper, R. (2018). From the Amazon to the Great Lakes: Sharing knowledge with First Nations communities in Canada. Terrastories. https://terrastories.io/from-the-amazon-to-the-great-lakes-sharing-knowledge-and-mapping-oral-histories-with-first-nations-communities-in-Canada/
King, J. T. (2007). The value of water and the meaning of water law for the native Americans known as the Haudenosaunee. Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, 16(3), 448–472. http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cjlpp%0A http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cjlpp/vol16/iss3/1
Schnarch, B. (2004, January). Ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP) or self-determination applied to research. Journal of Aboriginal Health, 80–95. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijih/article/view/28934
United States Caucus of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Task Team (US TEK Task Team). (2021). Guidance document on traditional ecological knowledge pursuant to the Great Lakes water quality agreement. https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/bia/wstreg/Guidance_Document_on_TEK_Pursuant_to_the_Great_Lakes_Water_Quality_Agreement.pdf
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood Publishing. https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9910125360602121
Recommended Readings
Brown, G., & Kyttä, M. (2018). Key issues and priorities in participatory mapping: Toward integration or increased specialization? Applied Geography, 95, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.04.002
Castellano, M. B. (2004). Ethics of aboriginal research. Journal of Aboriginal Health, 1, 98–114.
Digital Democracy. (2021). Terrastories: A tool for place-based storytelling. Earth Defenders Toolkit. https://www.earthdefenderstoolkit.com/toolkit/terrastories-a-tool-for-place-based-storytelling
Fernández-Llamazares, Á., & Cabeza, M. (2018). Rediscovering the potential of Indigenous storytelling for conservation practice. Conservation Letters, 11(3), e12398. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12398
Kemper, R. (2019). Mapping and recording place-based oral histories: A methodology. https://www.amazonteam.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ACT_OralHistories_Guide_2019_ENGLISH.pdf
Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts. University of Toronto Press.
Martin-Hill, D., & Soucy, D. (2005). Ganono’se’n e yo’gwilode’: Ethical guidelines for aboriginal research elders and healers roundtable. http://www.ihrdp.ca/media/docs/lega4e54fe5d0c807-ethical%20guidelines%20for%20aboriginal%20research.pdf
McGurk, T. J., & Caquard, S. (2020). To what extent can online mapping be decolonial? A journey throughout Indigenous cartography in Canada. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien, 64(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12602
Ollivierre, A. D., Burnett, C. M., & Hetoevėhotohke’e Lucchesi, A. (2021). Participatory mapping. In International encyclopedia of geography (pp. 1–9). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg1155.pub2
Thornhill, N. (2020). A Ratikararò:roks (story gatherers) training guide for the stewardship of Haudenosaunee ecological knowledge. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a0cddae51a584d71fb23968/t/6244f2fb4532687d792d58e8/1648685820728/Terrastories+at+Six+Nations_A+Story+Gatherers+Training+Guide.edited.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Martin, C., Kemper, R., Gibson, C.M., Thornhill, N., Patel, R., Martin-Hill, D. (2023). Terrastories. In: Burnett, C.M. (eds) Evaluating Participatory Mapping Software. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19594-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19594-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-19593-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-19594-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)