News

Sept. 16, 2014 — The University of Victoria is hoping online mapping tools will help First Nations communities in their dealings with the federal and provincial governments. Listen to the "Up North" interview on the CBC Radio website.

Aug. 29, 2014 — While the impact of the Mount Polley mine spill on the greater marine ecosystem and salmon fisheries is still being deciphered, a mapping initiative with Indigenous communities is creating a base of knowledge to protect against such disasters in the future. Read more on the Saanich News website.

Aug. 27, 2014 — A four-day mapping workshop at the University of Victoria this week has members from more than 70 First Nations charting their territories and stories under the technical guidance of Google Earth Outreach staff. Read more on The Times Colonist website.

Aug. 25, 2014 — Brian Thom talks to CBC Radio One about mapping traditional First Nations territories. Listen to the "On the island" interview on the CBC Victoria's SoundCloud.

Aug. 25, 2014 — Google Earth may soon extend its global gaze to some of the most remote First Nations territories in Canada. Google employees will be teaching members from about 70 First Nations across the country how to chart their land on the application during a four-day Indigenous Mapping Workshop at the University of Victoria that starts Monday. Read more on the CBC News website.

Aug. 19, 2014 — Indigenous communities across Canada are engaged in intensively mapping their lands, waters, resources and knowledge. These maps have unparalleled importance today not only for future generations celebrating Indigenous knowledge, but in discussions over land and resource development and the recognition of Indigenous rights. Read more on The Ring website.

Aug. 12, 2014 — The Lyackson First Nation's creation story says that its people descended from the sky, down a very tall Douglas fir tree. They wished to live on the tree, and asked a mystical creature to fell it. But the tree snapped in the process and became what are now Valdes and Galiano islands. That's how the Lyackson (which literally means “top of Douglas fir”) came to inhabit Valdes Island in the Strait of Georgia. Read more on The Times Colonist website.

Aug. 11, 2014 — Native communities across Canada are mapping their lands, a step that is vital in land claim negotiations since many First Nations are running into problems of territorial overlap. But at the University of Victoria researchers have developed sophisticated mapping technologies to try to help clearly show land and resource boundaries as well as shared lands. Read more on The Vancouver Sun website.

July 11, 2014 — As a commercial fisherman and an elder in the Stz’uminus First Nation, Ray Harris has long been a guardian of secrets. Neither his favourite fishing spots nor the oral history of sacred spaces around his community on Vancouver Island’s east coast have been easily pried from him. But he is now telling tales in the most irretrievably public way, contributing to an indigenous mapping project that imbeds his culture into the digital expanse of Google Earth. Read more on The Globe and Mail website.