This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
Mapping Community
- It was not possible to map lived experiences of marginalized groups.
- Most points of interest which populated the map were likely to be advertising of some sort, due to the self-selection involved with geotagging tweets.
- Results could only be shown for the past 24 hours.
When it comes to asking people to contribute, my prompt has been, "map a few things which are important to you, in your life here in this area." After briefly explaining the ideas behind the experiment, one of the most common questions which I was asked in return was "should I map something related to my tribe?" My response, "it doesn't have to be." On one hand, the idea of mapping tribal points of interest makes sense within the goal of using ArcGIS as a technology of recovery, taking the chance to start over with an approach to the land which honors Native tradition. On the other hand, due to all of the tribes represented in the WSU population, and the inappropriateness of installing myself as a moderator in such a process, as someone with no Native background, it seemed best to take a different approach to the content of the map. Additionally, making the map all about traditional knowledge of the lands surrounding Pullman would exclude Native contributors who are not from here. A hands-off approach allows, I hope, for people to map all of the ways in which they interact with the land, and thus it will become valuable within the Native Programs communities at WSU.
The affordances of ArcGIS--by which I mean its advantages and limitations as a digital platform--are majorly responsible for the outcome of the project as well. Where Google has featured shared mapping for several years, working on this project through ArcGIS meant that I needed to log in and allow contributors to tag the map under my credentials. While working through Google might have been easier, it would not have been the right choice for this project. Google's focus on advertising and data collection, not to mention its poor track record with inclusivity of Native lands, made it less than ideal as a technology of recovery. In addition, working within the constraints of ArcGIS meant that it was a personal, face-to-face process of adding to the map, which seems appropriate to the goals of the project.
The map below will show a handful of mapped points when zoomed out from its default stance. These points extend thirty or forty miles from Pullman at their farthest. As a proof of concept, it shows the kind of flexibility that ArcGIS can bring to this mapping project, particularly when it comes to the base map. A satellite view which removes labels is ideal for now, but eventually, it would be best to have the map points appear on a blank background or an artistic take on the land contributed by a Native artist. In these ways, the new map can get away from colonial discourses of measurement.