Hello everyone! Look forward to meeting you. Please introduce yourself.
Like many of you, I’ve been fascinated by maps since childhood, thanks to the National Geographic Magazine. Along life’s edu road, one that led me to an Australian rain forest as a documentary photographer and Ngaalu (Dreamtime) country, an Aboriginal elder helped me hear the voices of my Mescalero Apache and Mestizo (Indigenous Nicaraguan) ancestors.
Graduate school in Computing in the Arts (i’m an artist) was all about GIS as an art medium and Indigenous issues as a predominant theme. Since then, I’ve been active at URISA, EdUC and ESRI, CAA and Siggraph conferences, even judged a few maps. I’ve also been webmaster of several sites, including the Society of Conservation GIS, www.scgis.org and was a GIS Coordinator for a tribal college on the Rosebud Reservation.
I’ve been on the board of Indigenous Mapping Network (IMN), http://indigenousmapping.net, for several years but still don’t know the origins of the organization’s name. However, most of the IMN folks are in the US and Indian country… AMN is a good inspiration.
We are interested in everything about maps, GIS, Indigenous issues of protecting, preserving, and managing our homelands and water. Passing these skills to one another and our children rates up there too. Sound familiar?
I recently stepped into redeveloping the site and would love to hear your critique and how best to support and link arms with you and your work. We are your younger brother, lean and looking up to you.
If you have a story or event you want to share about mapping and Aboriginal, Indigenous, Native,First Nations issues.Feel free to create an account, and add to your network.
Clean air, good earth, loving family and .. powerful maps,
Hello Rosemarie,
Welcome to the AMN! It will be great to have someone from the IMN participate within our Network. I am sure you will bring a great deal of knowledge and energy to our forums and activities.
Looking forward to your contributions.
Best, Eliana.
Your website is inspirational and content rich. So many great things to enjoy. A strong node of Aboriginal map representation and users in Canada. I clicked on your member map the other day, and it took several minutes to download. the canadian landscape on that map was so peppered up with red dots as if the wings of the aboriginal map network members protected the ground… wow. wonderful.
I’ve seen a few posts on the forums to contribute, and look forward to meeting new friends.
Joy find you all,
Rose
Webmaster
Indigenous Mapping Network
IndigenousMapping.net
Hello Rose,
Our User Map represents people or organizations who have registered with the AMN, and so it does not represent the extent of users nor their full global distribution (we have had visitors from over 100 countries in the last six months).
The current map picture displays approximately equal AMN membership between Canada and the United States – our largest member base by geography. We are also finding significant growth from northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
However, the success of the AMN is from individual particpation and contributions like yours, and the numbers above are not how we define our success. Our mission is to mitigate the professional and geographic isolation that is too often experienced by indigenous mapping practioners around the world. We are humbled by the work and contributions you make and we are always open to hearing your ideas about how the AMN can support your work.
Cheers,
Greg