3/1/2013
Guest Editors
Renee Pualani Louis and G. Rebecca Dobbs
Introduction
Indigenous communities have successfully engaged with all forms of geospatial technologies (including digital maps, satellite images, geographic information systems, and global positioning systems) since the 1970s to protect tribal resources, document territorial sovereignty, create tribal utility databases, and manage watersheds. As a result, the number and breadth of Indigenous mapping projects has exploded worldwide, generating numerous conferences, forums, and workshops. Topics at such events range from using geospatial technologies to showcase projects on Indigenous lands, to critically analyzing the technologies’ capabilities to appropriately represent cultural knowledge and developing new ontological structures that are more consistent with Indigenous ontologies. In the last decade, the increase of Indigenous community engagement with geospatial technologies has been fostered by the rise of special Indigenous sessions at academic and professional GIS conferences worldwide, ESRI’s integration of Tribal GIS to the ESRI Conservation Program, the emergence of resources freely available online such as networking forums like the Aboriginal Mapping Network, the Indigenous Mapping Network, and the Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) websites, and numerous guidebooks on how to work with and/or for Indigenous communities engaging in geospatial technologies.
Objective
In this special issue of IJAGR, we seek to highlight ways that geospatial technologies have benefitted or stand to benefit Indigenous peoples. Manuscripts are sought from Indigenous communities, academics, NGOs, and governmental/intergovernmental agencies who have used GIS or other geospatial technologies to engage Indigenous communities and issues and to help develop practical outcomes in aid of Indigenous empowerment and/or self-determination. Projects described may be at any scale, and from any part of the globe.
Recommended Topics
- Protecting Indigenous lands and resources
- Gathering and protecting community knowledge
- Tribal government mediation and negotiations
- Economic planning for Indigenous lands
- Securing data accessibility
- Collaborative/participatory mapping techniques
- Natural resource management
- Land use planning for the 7th generation
- Improving Indigenous health concerns/issues
- Reconstructing past geographic conditions
- Illuminating historical events
- Incorporating critical reframing of geospatial technologies into applied projects
Submission Procedure
See the Call for Papers for information about the submission procedure: http://www.igi-global.com/calls-for-papers-special/international-journal-applied-geospatial-research/1138