News

Listen to CBC Radio's On the Island interview on Implications of Tsilhqot’in Decision to Treaty Process

Listen to CBC Radio One Ontario Up North interview on Google mapping could help First Nations communities.

Listen to CBC Radio On the Island interview Mapping First Nations Traditional Territories

Listen to CBC Radio Daybreak North interview Mapping Indigenous Lands

Read Globe and Mails feature on traditional villages and landmarks near Ladysmith, B.C., being mapped as part of a new project

CFAX Radio Victoria 20 minute live interview with Dr. Brian Thom celebrating Indigenous languages Google Earth Voyager project.

The Scout highlights UVic's Ethnographic Mapping Lab project page on the "Oka Crisis"

Google Earth’s “Celebrating Indigenous Languages” project was launched late this summer and showcases 55 Indigenous languages in 27 countries.

Celebrating Indigenous Languages’ Project Aims To Save Thousands of Dialects. The project is a joint effort between Google Earth and University of Victoria researchers.

Indigenous speakers share their languages on Google Earth

Google Earth features B.C. Indigenous language in new Voyager story New story plays sound clips of Indigenous speakers, including voice of Snuneymuxw elder

New Google Earth project aims to preserve Indigenous languages

Google Celebrating Indigenous languages

Google unveils Voyager app to engage users with 55 Indigenous languages

Read CBC's article on Google Earth Voyager's project to raise awareness on Indigenous languages and preservation efforts.

Cinquante langues autochtones sur Google Earth

Check out CBC's video on Google Earth Voyager project on Indigenous languages.

This article discusses the work of Google Earth Voyager's Indigenous language project. In 2019 GE Voyager released a sample of Indigenous languages from around the world including one from Vancouver Island. One of the 55 Indigenous languages is Hul’q’umi’num’, the Indigenous language spoken by First Nations peoples on Vancouver Island between Nanoose Bay and Mill Bay. The words and phrases are spoken by yutustanaat of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and a teacher of the Hul'q'umi'num language and culture at Ladysmith Secondary School.

During a four-day Indigenous mapping workshop at the University of Victoria, representatives from over 100 aboriginal organizations shared stories and ideas about using Google technology in their territories. Combining old and new knowledge, First Nation groups are creating territory maps, doing environmental monitoring and charting traditional place names.

At this workshop participants delved into hands-on training, learning to plot data in Google Maps and conduct interviews tailored to mapping everything from biographies and sacred sites to Indigenous place names and environmental concerns

The University of Victoria (UVic) is continuing its leadership with collaborative Indigenous mapping research by bringing together more than 100 representatives from Indigenous organizations across Canada for a four-day intensive workshop beginning Monday, Aug. 25.

This news article explores the advantage of direct-to-digital methods that are replacing paper mapping of Indigenous territories.

Native communities across Canada are mapping their lands, a step that is vital in land claim negotiations since many First Nations are running into problems of territorial overlap. But at the University of Victoria researchers have developed sophisticated mapping technologies to try to help clearly show land and resource boundaries as well as shared lands.

The video shows a timelapse of areas of forest in Ladysmith that have been cleared to make way for development and logging over the last three decades.

University of Victoria Professor Brian Thom creates map of Ladysmith for residents to gain a better understanding of what landscape development looks like over a period of time. This map will be able to give Ladysmith residents vital information when it comes to making future decisions.

Games are already good at magical explorations into surreal worlds but Gaming Without Frontiers aims to highlight how games can be used to create more social connections and foster health, educational and scientific aims.

Aug. 29, 2014 — While the impact of the Mount Polley mine spill on the greater marine ecosystem and salmon fisheries is still being deciphered, a mapping initiative with Indigenous communities is creating a base of knowledge to protect against such disasters in the future. Read more on the Saanich News website.

Aug. 27, 2014 — A four-day mapping workshop at the University of Victoria this week has members from more than 70 First Nations charting their territories and stories under the technical guidance of Google Earth Outreach staff. Read more on The Times Colonist website.

Aug. 25, 2014 — Brian Thom talks to CBC Radio One about mapping traditional First Nations territories. Listen to the "On the island" interview on the CBC Victoria's SoundCloud.

Aug. 25, 2014 — Google Earth may soon extend its global gaze to some of the most remote First Nations territories in Canada. Google employees will be teaching members from about 70 First Nations across the country how to chart their land on the application during a four-day Indigenous Mapping Workshop at the University of Victoria that starts Monday. Read more on the CBC News website.

Aug. 19, 2014 — Indigenous communities across Canada are engaged in intensively mapping their lands, waters, resources and knowledge. These maps have unparalleled importance today not only for future generations celebrating Indigenous knowledge, but in discussions over land and resource development and the recognition of Indigenous rights. Read more on The Ring website.

Aug. 12, 2014 — The Lyackson First Nation's creation story says that its people descended from the sky, down a very tall Douglas fir tree. They wished to live on the tree, and asked a mystical creature to fell it. But the tree snapped in the process and became what are now Valdes and Galiano islands. That's how the Lyackson (which literally means “top of Douglas fir”) came to inhabit Valdes Island in the Strait of Georgia. Read more on The Times Colonist website.

July 11, 2014 — As a commercial fisherman and an elder in the Stz’uminus First Nation, Ray Harris has long been a guardian of secrets. Neither his favourite fishing spots nor the oral history of sacred spaces around his community on Vancouver Island’s east coast have been easily pried from him. But he is now telling tales in the most irretrievably public way, contributing to an indigenous mapping project that imbeds his culture into the digital expanse of Google Earth. Read more on The Globe and Mail website.