The Race to Put Indigenous Land on the Map
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- Author: Liani MK and Muhammad Fadli
- Full Title: The Race to Put Indigenous Land on the Map
- Category: articles
- Document Tags: #geospatial
- URL: https://restofworld.org/2023/indigenous-land-map-tech/
Highlights
- Nonprofit organizations in Borneo are training Indigenous communities to formally establish their native land rights in order to protect their local areas from such encroachment. But first, they need to demarcate which land is theirs. To do so, they are turning to mapping technologies such as GPS and geographic information systems (GIS), and in some cases drone photography, to document their native land. Once it has been sufficiently mapped, they can apply to have their land be legally recognized as protected native land, and fight against illegal intrusions by logging and plantation companies in court. Without that protection, these communities face displacement, destruction of their homes, and a loss of their cultural identity. (View Highlight)
- Many other projects around the world have similar aims. The Native Land project, also in Canada, uses interactive maps to show the traditional territories and languages of Indigenous peoples across the world. In South America, the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) maps the territories and resources of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin. (View Highlight)
- In Malaysia, a legal concept known as native customary rights (NCR) recognizes the collective ownership of land by Indigenous communities even if they don’t have formal deeds. NCR land refers to land that Indigenous peoples have occupied and used for generations, based on their customary practices and traditions known as adat. (View Highlight)
- Passed down through oral tradition, adat encompasses a wide range of practices, including land use, resource management, social organization, and spiritual beliefs, shaping the ways in which communities govern themselves and their resources. It is essential to understanding Indigenous peoples’ relationship with the land, the environment, and one another. For example, adat may dictate how land is divided and allocated within a community, how water and timber are used and managed, and how social and economic relationships are structured. (View Highlight)
- To conduct its mapping, SCRIPS first gathers data from local communities through oral history interviews about their land, and by identifying particular landmarks such as rivers, farms, and communal graves. Then, a team treks into the forests with handheld GPS devices to gather coordinates based on those stories. In a meeting that follows, the community decides which elements on the map are important for documentation. The SCRIPS team then uploads these points into the GIS software, which analyzes and integrates location data (such as latitude and longitude) and the descriptions. The result is a visual map that stores and displays a spatial analysis of the location. (View Highlight)