"A contemporary guide to cultural mapping: An ASEAN-Australia perspective" now available!

The cultural mapping process may focus on the past, the present and also the future. Cultural mapping can be used to monitor change in material culture as well as intangible cultural heritage. A cultural map may be created as an end in itself or provide an input into other endeavours.

Many methods and technologies are used to create cultural maps; some are simple and ephemeral such as drawing in the sand. Others use the latest technologies to locate cultural phenomenon spatially using geographic information systems. Whatever methods are used to map culture or cultural products, the map most often takes a physical form (a list, matrix, chart, diagram, design, website, sound recording, video, drawing, painting, textile, sculpture or model) where information is gathered, arranged and presented physically or virtually. In this context the authors use the term map as a mental model and mapping as mental model making as they explore the body of knowledge associated with this expanding field.

The Guide is available free of charge due to the generous support of The Australian National University, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The National Museum of Australia and The ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. It is hoped the Guide will be available online in July/August 2013.

Artlab Australia is co-managing the distribution of hard copies of the Guide. There is a limited print run so if you want a copy we recommend that you place an order immediately. A payment is required to cover the costs of packaging and postage. Postal charges vary enormously depending on destination. To order, please email: artlab@dps.sa.gov.au

For general information about the Guide please contact the authors:

Ian Cook: ianlcook@bigpond.net.au
Ken Taylor: k.taylor@anu.edu.au

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Community Mapping of Cultural Heritage in the Solomon Islands

In the Solomon Islands, a place of rich cultural heritage, there are many threats to historical cultural sites including logging, climate change and sea-level rise. Solomon Island local community members joined a training workshop in 2011 run by Professor Richard Walter of The University of Otago (New Zealand), and learned the skills required to recognise, identify and map out and document their cultural heritage to preserve these special places for the future.

Mapping Winnemem Sacred Sites

Mt. Shasta, California, North America - July 12, 2011

Maps tell stories, and control of the printing press allowed colonial powers to tell their own stories for centuries. A Native American tribe that was literally taken off the map in California’s history books — and is still unrecognized by the U.S. government — is using technology to put themselves back on the map. On June 11 and 12, Eli Moore and Catalina Garzon of Pacific Institute, and Miho Kim of The Data Center, led a mapping workshop with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to continue a long process of documenting sacred sites in the Winnemem’s traditional cultural territory. On Saturday, mapping terminology and GPS skills were mastered in the Winnemem village near Redding, and on Sunday a dozen young people practiced their new skills while visiting four sacred sites along the McCloud River. We filmed the workshop to include as a scene in our Losing Sacred Ground documentary series.

All over the world, indigenous communities are incorporating mapping into their communication and outreach strategies, as they craft the stories they want to tell to the outside world about their struggles to protect land, culture, language and sacred sites. Mapping now figures into five of our eight stories: in Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Russia’s Altai Republic, the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, and in northern California. As Winnemem leader Caleen Sisk-Franco says, "We need to create evidence to convince the Forest Service that this is a historic cultural district containing a network of sacred sites that all work together.

Different places teach us different things and have different purposes. But we need them all.

Source: Sacred Land Project

Pacific Cultural Mapping, Planning and Policy Toolkit

This toolkit has been made possible by the generous contribution of the European Commission, through the Structuring the Cultural Sector in the Pacific for Improved Human Development project. The toolkit was drafted following the Cultural Policy Workshop held at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) headquarters in Nouméa, New Caledonia from 25–28 March 2010, and is designed to provide guidance to countries and territories carrying out the cultural mapping, planning and policy process.
Culture permeates political, economic and social life across Oceania. Because indigenous peoples and practices have predominated across this region for hundreds – and, in some places, thousands – of years, culture is lived and directly influences the values, decisions and hopes of Pacific Island peoples. Culture in Oceania is primarily understood to reference the people or customs ‘of the land’ but in the 21st century many other ideas, beliefs and practices have now taken root. In addition, Pacific populations are increasingly mobile and have settled beyond their indigenous homelands. Similarly, the Islands have welcomed new migrants from other countries. Culture therefore involves old, new and continuously developing modes of thinking, being and creating.

Globally, this cultural process is of great economic and social importance: many countries in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean prioritise culture for national investment, capacity building, human development, peace and security, economic growth and communal revitalisation. In the international context, culture is increasingly central to ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ – two concepts that are at the heart of the cultural or creative industries. In the Pacific Island region, however, these industries are not clearly defined and programmes or policies on culture are still seen to be primarily about promoting or safeguarding tangible and intangible cultural heritage including traditional knowledge.

Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)

Related topics:  Building Critical Awareness of cultural mapping. A Workshop Facilitation Guide. (UNESCO, 2009)