Cybercartography in a Reconciliation Community : Engaging Intersecting Perspectives

Cybercartography in a Reconciliation Community: Engaging Intersecting Perspectives, Volume Eight gathers perspectives on issues related to reconciliation―primarily in a residential / boarding school context―and demonstrates the unifying power of Cybercartography by identifying intersections among different knowledge perspectives. Concerned with understanding approaches toward reconciliation and education, preference is given to reflexivity in research and knowledge dissemination. The positionality aspect of reflexivity is reflected in the chapter contributions concerning various aspects of cybercartographic atlas design and development research, and related activities. In this regard, the book offers theoretical and practical knowledge of collaborative transdisciplinary research through its reflexive assessment of the relationships, processes and knowledge involved in cybercartographic research.

Using, most specifically, the Residential Schools Land Memory Mapping Project for context, Cybercartography in a Reconciliation Community provides a high speed tour through the project’s innovative collaborative approach to mapping institutional material and volunteered geographic information. Exploring Cybercartography through the lens of this atlas project provides for a comprehensive understanding of both Cybercartography and transdisciplinary research, while informing the reader of education and reconciliation initiatives in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Italy.

• Includes a variety of examples of reconciliation work, especially related to residential / boarding schools, and examines common themes in the issues discussed
• Offers both conceptual and applied dimensions, and provides a good example of a reflexive approach to both research and knowledge dissemination
• Addresses a modern application for Cybercartography that is of considerable societal importance
• Provides historiographical accounts of atlas-making processes, multidisciplinary perspectives on research issues and conceptual explorations

Stephanie A. Pyne is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. She is also a member and researcher in the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University. Her research and teaching focuses on interdisciplinary applications of geography and cartography, including in her work on the Residential Schools Land Memory Mapping Project. The project brings together work in different disciplines, including cartography, community archaeology, history and archival studies, sociology, and education to acknowledge, honour, and enhance awareness of the living history of the land, the buildings and the survivors of Residential Schools, and to contribute to research and education – building relationships in the spirit of reconciliation.

D.R. Fraser Taylor’s combination of experience and expertise in the areas cartography and geographic information, governance, public policy, international affairs, polar issues, Indigenous knowledge and other themes addressed in this volume is unmatched. Professor Taylor’s main research interests are in the application of geospatial information management to the analysis of key socio-economic problems in a national and international context and the presentation of the results in innovative new cartographic forms. He introduced and continues to develop the new paradigm of Cybercartography. His interests in cartography and international development issues are often inter-related. He has extensive field experience in developing nations, especially in Africa. His research interests in this area include: development studies with special reference to Africa, China and Latin America; regional and rural development theory and practice sustainable development and Indigenous development strategies; technology transfer in the field of geomatics; Canada’s international policies in Official Development Assistance; and technology transfer. Current research includes the use of Cybercartography to create a series of atlases with Inuit and other Indigenous peoples in Canada’s north, in northern and global developmental issues, and in active participation in the new United Nations Initiative on Geospatial Information Management, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the Global Earth System of Systems, and the Arctic Geospatial Data Infrastructure. Cybercartography is now being used by Indigenous people in both Mexico and Brazil.