Learning to talk to the land: Online stewardship in Taku River Tlingit territory

• Main Authors: Schreyer, Christine, Corbett, Jon, Gordon, Nicole, Larson, Colleen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 2014
• Subjects: place names; language revitalization; Tlingit; geolive mapping; stewardship; Taku; Taku River; tlingit
• Online Access: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22237

Stewardship is a concept that members of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation have long embraced in respect to their territory. Within the community’s vision and management documents, responsible stewardship is described as the requirement to “exercise our leadership in all aspects of caring of our lands” (TRTFN, 2003, p. 17). This connection to land is also enshrined in the community’s constitution, which states, “Our land looks after us and we look after our land. Anything that happens to Tlingit land affects us and our culture” (TRTFN, 1993). In relation to these principles, this paper describes the development of an online participatory mapping tool that combines Taku River Tlingit ideologies of stewardship with Tlingit language place names and stories. We address the development of the mapping tool as an educational mechanism via four key themes: 1) Place names teach you how to respect the land, 2) Place names give you pride, 3) Place names tell you about the land, and 4) Place names let you leave your mark. We position these themes within a multi-year collaborative research project directed by both community members and university researchers. Finally, we speculate on the role of web-based mapping as an effective medium for communities to articulate the connection between land, language and stewardship.