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Technology preserves traditional knowledge

Article Origin

Author

Inna Dansereau, Sage Writer, Saskatoon

Volume

7

Issue

8

Year

2003

Page 9

Saskatchewan's First Nations communities can find Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to be a very useful tool in recording the history of their traditional activities, explained Ben Hjermstad.

Hjermstad is a senior archeologist with Golder Associates, a consulting company that provides a range of engineering and environmental solutions for civil engineering and natural resource projects. He said the best way for people to visualize where they've been undertaking their traditional activities is on maps.

What using GIS technology to create these maps does is allow you to attach information to them. The GIS program allows you to click on a part of the map, which then gives you access to the information you have stored about that particular location.

Hjermstad said his company has worked on these types of visual maps with more than a dozen First Nations in Saskatchewan. He recently spoke about the use of GIS technology for management of traditional knowledge at the Emerging Issues and Opportunities in Aboriginal Forestry conference, held March 5 and 6 in Saskatoon, and co-ordinated by the First Nation Forestry Program in partnership with the Prince Albert Model Forest and the Canadian Model Forest Network.

Hjermstad explained that his company often interviews First Nations Elders as part of traditional knowledge surveys, and that's when GIS comes in handy.

"When we do a traditional knowledge study, we'll usually interview a substantial number of people, so you end up with quite a bit of information from different people on a particular site area. And GIS is really useful in that it's kind of a mapping and an information tool. It's sort of an information management tool," Hjermstad said.

He added that all collected information can be put into a database that the GIS can then represent visually.

"So when we conduct an interview we will be talking to them about what kind of plants they gathered, what they were using them for, where they hunted, where they trapped," said Hjermstad.

He said they usually bring maps of the area and get the Elders to point out all the locations for these different traditional activities. "We'll have a picture of a moose and let them drop down the map where they hunted the moose and maybe a picture of a beaver where they trapped beaver."

Hjermstad said GIS can also serve as a reference as to what the local ecological region is like.

"We find it really useful for the First Nations themselves in that instead of having this big huge database with all these numbers thrown at you, you can put it out on a computer screen. It's a visual map for the people, and I think they're finding it much more useful."

Hjermstad sees the GIS's ability to preserve traditional knowledgeas something that will be valuable for future generations as well.

He cited youth education as another important reason for using GIS. "Showing them how people have used the land for hundreds of generations and being able to provide a link between the Elders of the nation and the youth, I think it's a really valuable education tool," he said.

He stressed, however, that the collected information would never be shared with anyone without a First Nation's consent. "We always sign a confidentiality agreement. A lot of this information should be protected, and is the property of the people that are telling us," he said.

"One of the advantages of having a database is that you can password-protect it, so that you can limit who can go on there and look at that information, and have strict guidelines on what that information would be used for."

In addition, the GIS can be used as a tool for land management. "The First Nation then has a picture of the use of their land base, and then when there are proposed developments in the area . . . maybe they are planning some kind of forestry activity to harvest some of the timber in the area, this information then can be used to better manage what locations will be harvested, for instane," Hjermstad said.

"Another example might be women gather traditional medicinal plants from this location. If the forest is harvested in that location, maybe you would be damaging the amount of medicinal plant coming out of there. You could say, 'This is the location we would like to see protected'."