Welcome to Nuxalk Territory: a deep mapping project. In indigenous Yaw ntsla Kim Baglot (Hello, my name is Kim Baglot) As a member of the Metis Nation, I would like to acknowledge that I live, learn, and breathe on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional lands of the Nuxalk Nation of Bella Coola. (go on to weave something beautiful about this territory) As such, …..This website seeks to explore deep mapping as a method to re-centre Nuxalk stories and perspectives in place. When most people interact with maps, they do so through the lens of colonization, without the awareness of doing so. Colonization, like patriarchy, fills in the lines around us and influences even the most nuanced interactions with media. Text and games enable us to hold space for play, allowing for the creation of the magic circle, which is necessary to free ourselves from our day to day lives. Said magic circle is powerfully accomplished for indigenous peoples when decolonized practices allow for the application and understanding of indigenous voices and perspectives. To determine how deep mapping can decolonize, we must align our definition of decolonization with that of the article we are reviewing. Creating a Playable Academic Edition of Mourning Dove’s Cogewea or How Games can Decolonize, defines decolonization as the ability “to demystify, re-center, and rewrite to re-right the place of indigenous peoples in history, culture, and politics” (Humphries, 2019). As an indigenous woman, I have chosen this article to help inform my own educational practice, which focuses on the integration of culture, technology, and hands-on learning to create meaningful learning experiences through the process of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing). It is for this reason that I have endeavoured to decolonize this virtual space by re-centring the indigenous language of this territory, Nuxalk, using connected storytelling practices, and employing interactive mapping as it offers a powerful platform for weaving storytelling and place, further challenging the linear nature of the academic text (Humphries, 2019). Peetigway! (Come in!) This site is to be used as a legacy project, where Interpretive signs on the burnt bridge loop trail have historically focused on Alexander Mackenzie’s voyage, making little note of indigenous history, voice, and perspective. As a response the grade 7 students under the guidance of Kim Baglot, their teacher, at Acwsalcta school created a re-interpretive tour in 2019, interviewing knowledge keepers, conducting research, and weaving their experiences with the landscape along the Burnt Bridge Loop Trail. Inspired by their work, this site seeks to create an interactive educational map, or deep map, that can be contributed to and used locally by Nuxalk people, accessed online informally by tourists, and formally by K-12 classrooms as per our new BC curricular expectations/mandates. The “depth” of this map takes the form of indigenous self-representation, by including Nuxalk experience, storytelling principles, and voice. This site is populated with permission from Nuxalk knowledge keepers and youth and is thus an authentically indigenous educational tool. The Oolichan Grease Trail In 2018 Acwsalcta’s grade 7 class researched the Grease Trail and Alexander Mackenzie from a Nuxalk Perspective. They created an interpretive tour for the Burnt Bridge Loop Trail, which includes sections of the Grease Trail, and presented it to the community. As one student put it, “it is important for us to tell our own stories,” these are some of their stories. In order to experience this Depth of Place:
- Select “Satellite” in the upper left corner of the Map below
- Choose a point and click on it
- Click “Read More” in the lower right corner of the popup window to see the full story the Class of 2024 has shared.