Through FLOE, the IDRC recently participated in a panel discussion at the Indigeverse Multimedia Festival. Together with other project team members, we presented an overview of some recent work on an ecocultural mapping project. The presentation was a preview of an upcoming Indigenous Design Collective workshop, where we will discuss the project in more detail.
In partnership with Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, the project aims to co-create an inclusive, participatory mapping program in the Salish Sea that integrates Indigenous ways of knowing and Western ecological science into an interactive ecocultural mapping tool. The pilot project, led by Jeannine Georgeson, an Indigenous member of the Galiano community, is focused on a specific location on Galiano Island (a gulf island off the coast of Vancouver, BC) named Xetthecum in the Hul’qumi’num language.
The Xetthecum project is part of a larger initiative begun by Shirley Williams and others at Whiteswan Environmental, an Indigenous-led non profit organization in Washington State. Through the Spirit of the Sxwo’le (SOS) coalition, Whiteswan is collaborating with IMERSS, the Institute for Multidisciplinary Ecological Research in the Salish Sea.
A video of Shirley William’s overview of the broader initiative (excerpted in the presentation) is available.