“When do we honour our lands and waters, listen for our ancestors, and rekindle our connections with more-than-human kin?

These are the questions guiding our Indigenous-led, relational mapping.”

Kia ora koutou, e mihi ana ki ngā whenua me ngā wai me ō tātou tūpuna.
(Greetings to all who are here reading this blog - we also acknowledge the lands and waters, and our ancestors too).

Introduction: Native Land Digital | Where We’re At & Where We’re Going

Ok so we are pushing our own boundaries (pun intended) -our purpose remains clear - to unflatten the map by layering Indigenous knowledge systems. This update outlines the research foundations shaping our redesign, the values guiding our community-led outreach, and the new metadata layers that will hold multidimensional, Indigenous-led stories of place. We ground NLD in the ethics, methodologies, and teachings of Indigenous ancestral mapping expanding our understanding of space, time, and relational accountability. For this update we draw particular inspiration from Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca), Renee Pualani Louis (Kanaka Maoli), and Margaret Wickens Pearce (Wabanaki) three women whose work redefines mapping from Indigenous knowledge systems. Their scholarship teaches us that Indigenous maps are embodied, living languages, movements, stories, and responsibilities. By centering Indigenous epistemologies, we aim to create a digital system that respects, and honours relationships with land, waters, and more-than-human worlds. Acknowledging that this work is slow, ongoing, partial, and accountable to the communities we serve.

“If we begin that way, by assuming cartography is language, we can expect it to be capable of infinite creative expansion if we have the courage, craft, patience, and dedicated practice to imagine it so” — Margaret Wickens Pearce.

What do we mean by Flattening?

Mainstream GIS systems often reduce these complex relationships to points, lines, polygons. While useful (we use this method on the main map) these structures encode settler-colonial logic of land as static ‘territories’ (symbolising ownership) instead of illustrating Indigenous understandings of land and waters as alive!, relational, and evolving. So then unflattening the map requires a fundamental shift in perspective. Drawing on the work of Goeman, Louis, and Pearce, we see that Indigenous cartography (wayfinding) is simultaneously language, movement, and memory (active and participatory). Maps are acts of narration and storytelling, shaped by Indigenous women’s spatial authority (Goeman, 2013). They are embodied and performative, capturing ceremony, song, hula, voyaging, tides, currents, and seasonal motion as forms of spatial knowledge (Louis, 2012, 2017). Layered in time, holding ancestral presence, relational stories, genealogies, and ecological memory in what Pearce calls “depth of place” (Pearce, 2008, 2020).

For NLD, this perspective transforms the way we think about our maps and the layering of information ‘metadata’ if you want to sound technical but we’re actually talking about story and the narrative of the land as well as our relationship to it. We collectively imagine maps that transform the way we understand place by highlighting the living, relational systems that speak in Indigenous languages, move with seasonal and ceremonial rhythms, remember ancestral time (simultaneously everywhere & nowhere) kinship responsibilities, and acknowledge the agency of more-than-human beings. Thats a lot! - so layers, interfaces, and metadata should be grounded in relational accountability, and Indigenous epistemologies.

The NLD Shift (our actions): Community-Based, Relational, and Indigenous-Led.

The continual updates we are making arise from the collective wisdom of the peoples we have worked with, met, spoken to, partnered with, and who have generously advised us from many cultures around the globe.

NLD currently hosts several maps that illustrate the diversity of Indigenous spatial knowledge. The Main Map includes territories, languages, and treaties drawn from open-source information, crowd-sourced contributions, and feedback from tribal nation members. While much of this feedback is positive, we also hear at times that some Indigenous communities feel we did not seek permission.

We co-created the NLD Data Sovereignty Treaty for our API. We were guided by OCAP® principles and Te Mana Raraunga, the treaty translates Indigenous data values into clear, practical commitments. It recognises that Indigenous data is relational, accountable to lands, waters, and communities, and should not be treated as extractable digital content. In an era of automated scraping and large-scale machine learning, our goal is to build a platform that amplifies Indigenous agency rather than eroding it.

The Place Names Map (currently in progress/ongoing) focuses on reinstating Indigenous place names, while the new Reciprocity Map (also in progress and ongoing) goes beyond traditional land acknowledgements to highlight Indigenous-led projects, stories of reclamation, recovery, rematriation, and resistance. It makes visible the work being done today on Indigenous lands, including environmental restoration (green dots) and challenges (red dots) such as extractive pressures or governance struggles. For example, ten newly recognised Indigenous territories in Brazil, already present on the NLD Territories Map, are now being added to the Reciprocity Layer to show where communities are actively defending their lands from mining, soy deforestation, and illegal logging.

This layer speaks to the ongoing and ever-evolving work of Indigenous peoples with lands and waters, inviting users to learn not only whose land they are on, but also what those nations are calling for, what support is needed, and how to stand in meaningful solidarity. Whether offering a land acknowledgement, forming partnerships, or simply wanting to do better, the Reciprocity Layer helps guide users to act with intention and care.

New Metadata Layers: Activating Story, Data Sovereignty, and Self Governance.

NLD is activating place-based, community-driven engagement. This includes developing relational protocols grounded in respect, listening, transparency, and consent; building outreach pathways and co-creating processes for communities to guide how their data is mapped, name and label their own demarcations, and determine how their spatial narratives are represented.

This ongoing approach centres Indigenous authority and relational accountability at every stage of the mapping process, generating rich metadata structures that allow communities to express multidimensional relationships and together forming a layered sense of place.

To begin this relational work, the NLD research team has initiated contact with tribes across Aotearoa New Zealand, extending next to Australia and now across the Pacific, following the epic waka voyages of our tūpuna. Each engagement begins with a respectful email invitation to open dialogue, guided by a fundamental question: Does the tribal nation wish to be represented on the NLD map?

From there, we hope to build a collaborative process that prioritises permission, verification, and sovereignty as conversations begin to unfold. This development draws on the work of Indigenous scholars revitalising our complex knowledge systems, eg. Goeman’s concept of cartography as language shapes story layers, oral testimony, cosmologies, and narrative mapping; Louis’s understanding of mapping as movement informs seasonal calendars, navigation paths, tides, currents, and star routes; and Pearce’s idea of depth of time frames deep story layers, ancestral presence, and layered histories.

Together, these frameworks shape the structural metadata categories that will underpin NLD’s evolving Indigenous-led mapping methodology.

A verification tick on the nation page signals that the map details are consented to, culturally verified, and endorsed by the nation.

A New Deep Story-Regional Layer (archaeological tribal histories -coming soon).

This honours nations no longer present in specific regions but whose descendants carry their legacies elsewhere. Drawing on archaeological evidence, cultural continuities, and oral histories, the Deep Story Layer seeks to extend the map into temporal dimensions (NLD and the difficulties of time previously discussed in an earlier blog post by Victor 2017), tracing how ancestral presence, knowledge, and relationships persist across generations and landscapes.

New ‘Constellation’ map (released 13th December): new main view.

This view reimagines how Indigenous nations are represented spatially by shifting emphasis away from fixed territorial borders and toward relationships, connection, and presence. Nations appear as points of light linked in a constellation-like network, suggesting movement, kinship, and shared geographies that extend beyond drawn boundaries. Territorial polygons remain visible at low opacity, grounding the map in existing data while allowing a more relational way of seeing Indigenous presence across land and waters to come forward. The view also increases the visibility of ocean bathymetry, acknowledging the importance of seafloor contours, currents, and ocean patterns within Indigenous navigation and knowledge systems. The Constellation Map is an ongoing experiment, reflecting our understanding that Indigenous mapping is living, adaptive, and continually shaped by relationships.

Future potential for New Maps and New Map Views.

Looking ahead, NLD envisions the development of new map perspectives that deepen these relational, cosmological, and more-than-human understandings of place even more. A Relational Map View could highlight kinship networks and the connections between Indigenous lands and waters, with an emphasis on the legal rights and personhood of the natural world. eg. He Whakaputanga Moana: Declaration for the Ocean is mapped on our Reciprocity map. What happens when we bring live stories of whale migration to the platform?

Cosmological Views might draw on mapping traditions from around the world from Mexica codices and Māori star navigation to Pacific voyaging maps and Amazonian cosmo-grams, restoring celestial relationships, ritual geographies, cosmological orientations, and ancestral pathways. More-than-Human Maps could incorporate biomes, flora and fauna, and environmental data, mapping the lifeforce of waterways, species habitats, and ecological kinship networks. For this we look to the inspiration of the Hokulea and the inspirational work of the master navigator Nainoa Thomson and the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

In considering relational and more-than-human layers of water and land, we draw inspiration from Betasamosake Simpson (2025), who emphasises water’s agency and relational presence in Indigenous epistemologies. Recognising that Indigenous geographies are not anthropocentric; rivers, winds, mountains, and spiritual beings are respected relatives. Also drawing upon global Indigenous frameworks, from Amazonian relational ecologies to Māori understandings of mauri (lifeforce), whakapapa (genealogical and informational layers), and our more-than-human relatives. While these views will ultimately become dedicated maps, in the meantime they will appear within the nation pages as we continue to build capacity, seek partnerships, and explore data-sharing opportunities.

We’re even speculating an NLD Future VR experiential map -imagine you’re an ancestor, you (now) and a descendant experiencing the land & waters where you stand!

Conclusion: Mapping Forward, Together.

Collective dreaming: what Indigenous futures can you imagine?

We see the potential for NLD to become a leading platform for Indigenous knowledge and the environment. By grounding our work in the theories of Goeman, Louis, and Pearce, NLD is expanding the map beyond static representations of land. We are creating storied networks, layering relational depth, and transforming the “map of land” into a map of living relationships between peoples, waters, lands, and our seen and unseen kin.

Our next steps focus on deepening community-led outreach (this will be a long process that is constantly evolving), working on Indigenous verification and sovereignty, designing metadata that reflects relational accountability, and developing map perspectives that capture seasonal, ceremonial, and more-than-human relationships. This builds upon the leading work achieved by NLD over the past decade and moves toward a living, biodiverse Indigenous knowledge platform.

We are honoured to walk this path alongside the communities who guide us, co-creating a map that is as dynamic, relational, and alive as the lands and waters it represents!

Nga mihi,
NLD Research whanau,

Based in Aotearoa NZ

NLD Research Blog Glossary

Cosmological Views
Map perspectives that incorporate celestial, spiritual, or ritual geographies. These views follow knowledge systems that link stars, seasons, migration, and ceremony to places on Earth.
Example: Mapping Māori star navigation pathways and seasonal markers alongside river systems and forests.

Cultural Protocols
Guidelines created by communities about how knowledge, language, and place information should be shared. They respect seasonal or ceremonial sensitivities and ensure knowledge holders’ authority is acknowledged.
Example: Restricting certain sacred site information to community members, while allowing public access to language or ecological data.

Deep Story Layer
A temporal-spatial layer that captures ancestral presence, memory, and histories that persist even if nations are no longer present in a specific region. It integrates archaeological evidence, oral histories, and cultural continuities to show the ongoing influence of past generations.
Example: Highlighting ancestral territories and migration routes that guide contemporary communities’ responsibilities and connections to land.

Indigenous Spatiality
The ways Indigenous peoples understand, relate to, and experience land, waters, and skies. Indigenous spatiality sees place as alive and interconnected, emphasising relationships, kinship, stories, ecological cycles, and ancestral presence, rather than just physical coordinates or political boundaries. It guides how maps, planning, and navigation are carried out in ways that honour these ongoing relationships.

More-than-Human
Refers to all living and non-living beings that inhabit and shape the world, beyond just humans. This includes rivers, forests, winds, mountains, animals, and spiritual beings. These entities are recognised as active participants in place, not merely resources or background.
Example: Mapping a river as part of a kinship network that includes human communities, fish, and ancestral stories.

Reciprocity Layer
A map layer that moves beyond simple land acknowledgements to show how Indigenous communities are actively caring for, defending, and revitalising their lands. It highlights projects, environmental restoration, cultural work, and areas under pressure from extractive industries.
Example: Including the ten new Indigenous territories recognised in Brazil, showing where communities are protecting lands from deforestation, mining, and illegal logging.

Relational Map View
A map perspective that visualises relationships between people, places, and more-than-human beings instead of focusing on static territorial boundaries. It emphasises networks, kinship, and obligations.
Example: Showing how neighbouring tribes share stewardship over a watershed, with seasonal responsibilities noted.

Sovereignty & Governance
Information about tribal governance structures, treaty areas, and historical or contemporary jurisdictional arrangements. Recognises Indigenous authority over land, water, and mapping narratives.
Example: Displaying governance zones where Indigenous councils determine land use, alongside historical treaty boundaries.

Story Layer
A map layer that allows communities to embed oral histories, video testimony, archival materials, and contemporary narratives, giving depth and life to spatial data.
Example: Linking an ancestral fishing site to a video interview with local knowledge holders describing traditional practices.

Reference list: Our Work is Shaped By
The approach and principles guiding Native Land Digital are informed by the writings, research, and teachings of Indigenous authors, philosophers, and thinkers, whose work explores relationality, cosmology, ancestral knowledge, and the more-than-human world. Additionally, the voices and feedback of Indigenous community members help ensure that our maps reflect lived experience, local knowledge, and cultural responsibilities. The following list highlights some of the key Indigenous thinkers whose scholarship and knowledge frameworks underpin our evolving methodology.

List of Indigenous Authors, Philosophers, & Thinkers Shaping Our Maps

Archibald, J.-A., Lee-Morgan, J., Xiiem, Q., and De Santolo, J. (Eds.). (2019). Decolonizing research: Indigenous storywork as methodology. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Beimers, H. O. (2022). Decolonizing the map: Indigenous maps and GIS (Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato). Cornerstone.

Betasamosake Simpson, L. (2017). As we have always done: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance. University of Minnesota Press.

Betasamosake Simpson, L. (2025). Theory of water: Nishnaabe maps to the times ahead. Haymarket Books.

Breda, T. V. (2022). (Of) Indigenous maps in the Amazon: For a decolonial cartography. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 11(3), 161.

Goeman, M. (2013). Mark my words: Native women mapping our nations. University of Minnesota Press.

Indigenous Mapping Collective (2014). Indigenous Maps: Global Indigenous Mapping Collective. https://www.indigenousmaps.com/

Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/he-whakaputanga-moana-declaration-for-the-ocean-treaty/.

Krygier, J. (2020). Introduction: Decolonizing the map: Recentering Indigenous mappings. In Decolonizing the Map (Special Issue). Cartographica, 55(3), 151–162.

Lee, E., & Evans, J. (Eds.). (2022). Indigenous women’s voices: 20 years on from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies. Bloomsbury Academic.

Louis, R. P., Johnson, J. T., & Pramono, A. H. (2012). Introduction: Indigenous cartographies and counter-mapping. Cartographica, 47(2), 77–79.

Louis, R. P., & Kahele, M. (2017). Kanaka Hawai‘i cartography: Hula, navigation, and oratory. Oregon State University Press.

Pearce, M. W. (2020). What shall we map next? Expressing Indigenous geographies with cartographic language. In Mapping the un-mappable? (pp.317–340).

Pearce, M. W., & Louis, R. P. (2008). Mapping Indigenous depth of place. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 32(3), 107–126.

Polynesian Voyaging Society (1975) https://hokulea.com/

Pyne, S., Castron, M., Parish, A., Farrell, P., & Johnston, S. (2022). Mapping for awareness of Indigenous stories. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 11(5), 292.

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (3rd ed.). Zed Books.

Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood Publishing.

Non Indigenous on Indigenous Mapping:

Hirt, I. (2012). Mapping dreams / dreaming maps: Bridging Indigenous and Western geographical knowledge.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the Summer 2025 Newsletter. We are grateful you are here! We have some exciting updates to share with the Native Land Digital community.

As of June 2025, Native Land Digital has:

• 100,000,000 visitors
• Added 4,000+ Nations
• 20,000,000 Application Programming Interface (API) calls
• 10,000 dialogues
• 60,000,000 shapes shared
  100+ collaborations

Native Land Disclaimer updated

When someone enters the website, they are greeted by a new disclaimer recognizing and honoring the sovereignty of all Indigenous nations, their lands, and their waters. This new language is meant to reflect our commitment to Indigenous data sovereignty. As such, our map is a living document that is informed by the contributions of Indigenous communities, knowledge holders, and their stories.

As a reminder, Native Land Digital does not claim to represent official or legal boundaries. We encourage people to connect directly with the Indigenous nations to learn more about their territories and histories.

Meet Kōrero, our AI Territory Acknowledgement helper

We invite everyone to speak with Kōrero, our new AI Territory Acknowledgement helper. Kōrero is meant to help people reflect on their connection to the Indigenous lands and waters they are on. Kōrero helps people to understand their relationships with the lands and waters of the places they are on, how they commit to the lands and waters, and what actions they can take to help care and steward the lands and waters they are on. Try it out!

New Placename Map

In addition to our main map, we have added a Placename map. This map displays a collection of placenames from Indigenous nations around the world.

Indigenous placenames are powerful pathways to telling stories of place. Indigenous placename maps document a community’s relationship with the lands and waters. As Indigenous people, we are connected to place through our stories, histories, and genealogies.

In an article with Conde Nast Traveler, our executive director, Tanya Ruka, explained:

“The name of the mountain and the river [come] before your ancestral names. It’s about genealogy. You are part of that place. We live in this area, we die in this area. We become this area. Our elders used to be able to trace that history back through ancestors to the land itself. The map is us.”

Indigenous placenames hold deep histories related to specific Indigenous nations. Our new Placename map is informed by the contributions of Indigenous community members, knowledge holders, and their stories. As such, it is important to recognize that a place may hold different names from different nations. It is also important for us all to recognize that some placenames hold sacred knowledge that should not be open to the public. We encourage people to connect directly with the Indigenous nations to learn more about their territories, placenames and pronunciations.

Support Native Land Digital

By joining the Native Land Digital Supporter’s Circle on Patreon, you help provide opportunities for Indigenous people to develop connections, share resources, discuss issues happening in communities, face ecological and developmental challenges together, and use technology in good ways.

As the largest free interactive map of Indigenous lands and waters available online, Native Land reaches millions of users worldwide. We are a small team that is largely funded through grants and donations.

We welcome any donation, no matter how small. Your support will help our team to develop additional resources.

Importantly, you help ensure our organization and users uphold ethical obligations to Indigenous data sovereignty and the nations we represent.

Thank you,

Native Land Digital

Kia ora koutou!

Ko Tanya Ruka ahau, ko Pūhanga Tohorā te maunga, ko Taheke te awa, ko Ngāpuhi te iwi, Aotearoa. (My name is Tanya Ruka, Pūhanga Tohorā is my mountain, Taheke is my river, Ngāpuhi is my tribe, New Zealand).

For those who don’t know me, I am the Executive Director for Native Land Digital. We have been working on some exciting changes for the Native Land Digital platform, and in the coming months, you’ll start to see these transitions take place!

One of the first changes you’ll notice is a shift in our language. Our main objective is to amplify and empower Indigenous voices. Over the past 18 months, we’ve reflected deeply on our roles — both as individuals and as a collective. Through this process, we are co-creating a global Indigenous digital ecosystem to highlight the powerful work Indigenous peoples are achieving on the land and in the waters. For us, as an Indigenous team, our connection to land and water is not just symbolic; it is a vital life source.

As an open-source information-based system with free and open access, the first logical step is a new, essential piece of our work that resonates deeply with our values and commitment to Indigenous communities: our Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty for our API. This treaty isn’t just a set of guidelines; it’s a statement of Indigenous authority and guardianship over our data, an expression of our sovereignty, and our information.

Why This Treaty Matters

Our Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty is a proactive step that brings accountability to the digital space. It centers around principles from several trusted sources:

• Te Mana Raraunga — the Māori Data Sovereignty Network, whose values reflect the importance of tikanga (cultural protocols) and whanaungatanga (relationships).
• Indigenous Data Lab — a platform that emphasizes Indigenous rights to control, access, and make decisions about data that impact our lives.
• OCAP® Principles from the First Nations Information Governance Centre — OCAP stands for Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, a framework used by First Nations communities in Canada to protect their data sovereignty.

Drawing on these sources, our treaty upholds ownership, control, access, and permission as central pillars. Each time someone uses our API, we ask them to remember these principles and respect the cultural value embedded in this data.

What This Means for Our API Users

Whether you’re a researcher, student, developer, or someone who wants to explore Indigenous territories online, you play a role in this treaty. By signing up to use our API, you’re agreeing to honor these principles in your work and the ways you share what you learn.

Our treaty is about building a respectful relationship with our data. It’s about understanding that data isn’t just numbers or dots on a map; it’s a living connection to Indigenous lands and histories. We ask that you, as a user, consider this in your work — honoring the knowledge shared with you and contributing to a more respectful digital future for all Indigenous communities.

Native Land Digital API Terms of Use

Last Updated: [14/02/2025]

1. Introduction

Native Land Digital (NLD) provides an open-access API to facilitate the responsible and ethical use of Indigenous mapping data. As part of NLD’s commitment to Indigenous Data Sovereignty, this API must be used in alignment with the principles outlined in the Native Land Digital: Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty.

All users requesting access to the NLD API must agree to the following terms, ensuring that Indigenous data remains under Indigenous governance and cannot be commercialized or misappropriated.

By accessing or using the NLD API, you agree to these legally binding terms. Violation of these terms may result in the revocation of API access.

2. Permitted Uses

The NLD API may be used only for the following purposes:

• Educational and research purposes that align with the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
• Non-commercial applications that respect Indigenous governance and do not generate revenue.
• Indigenous-led initiatives that directly support the self-determination and data governance of Indigenous communities.

3. Prohibited Uses

Users must not:

• Charge money for access to or integration of NLD API data in any form, including as part of a subscription, membership, or bundled service.
• Modify or alter Indigenous land boundaries without direct consultation and approval from the Indigenous communities involved.
• Use the API for commercial purposes, including monetized platforms, data resale, or proprietary applications.
• Use the API in a way that undermines Indigenous governance or misrepresents Indigenous territories.
• Use the API to create derivative works that do not acknowledge Indigenous ownership and governance of data.
• Store or distribute API data without explicit permission from Native Land Digital.

4. Indigenous Governance & Data Integrity

The final authority on boundary changes and Indigenous land data rests with Indigenous communities and Native Land Digital. API users must not facilitate, alter, or override Indigenous data governance processes.

Any use of the API must uphold the principles of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) as outlined in the Native Land Digital: Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty.

5. Data Attribution & Acknowledgment

All uses of the NLD API must attribute Native Land Digital as the original source of the data. Any publication, application, or research incorporating API data must acknowledge Indigenous communities as the rightful stewards of their data.

6. Enforcement & Termination

• NLD reserves the right to immediately revoke API access if a user violates these terms.
• Users found monetizing, altering, or misusing Indigenous data may be permanently barred from API access.

7. Agreement & Compliance

By signing below, you acknowledge that:

• You have read and understood the Native Land Digital: Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty.
• You will not monetize NLD API data or use it for commercial purposes.
• You recognize Indigenous governance over all data accessed through the API.
• You understand that violating these terms may result in legal action and termination of API access.

We appreciate your support in upholding Indigenous Data Sovereignty and ensuring that this platform remains a tool for Indigenous communities to share, protect, and govern their knowledge. Let’s continue working together to create a digital future where Indigenous rights and governance are respected and upheld!

Technical

Hello from the Native Land Digital tech team. I’m Victor Temprano, the founder of Native Land, and I’m the resident tech guy.

You can learn all about how the API works and how to use it in your applications at our API docs (https://api-docs.native-land.ca/), but here I just want to review the change we’re making that’s relevant to anyone already using our API.

Our API has been and remains open access and free, but we want to take more responsibility with how we distribute data and to make sure that we have good metrics on where our data is being used. This is important for all the reasons Tanya’s discussed above.

The technical side of this basically just means that we’ll require that you include an API key in your requests, starting November 20, 2024. You can get an API key by signing up at Native-Land.ca (https://native-land.ca/auth/signup), and then navigating to the API section and agreeing to the Data Sovereignty Treaty. Once you’ve done that, an API key will appear. Append this to all your API requests as a query string, as in the following example:

https://native-land.ca/api/index.php?maps=languages&position=42.553080,-86.473389

Will become:

https://native-land.ca/api/index.php?maps=languages&position=42.553080,-86.473389&key=your_api_key

That’s it! Make sure you include it in any POST requests, too, as a new data field.

For more information on this, see the API documentation (https://api-docs.native-land.ca/get-and-use-your-api-key) or get in touch with the tech team directly at tech@native-land.ca.

This will come into effect on 1st May 2025
API access will be temporarily switched off and anyone wishing to use the API will need to login, read and agree to the commit to help us move towards Indigenous Data Sovereignty.

Join Us on This Journey

We’re thrilled to be sharing this treaty with you, and we welcome you on this journey with us. As you interact with our API, let’s keep in mind that we’re connecting with something alive, something sacred. The data here represents lands, histories, and futures we all have a responsibility to respect.

So, whether you’re developing the next great app, diving into historical research, or just exploring, please remember: this data belongs to communities with stories and rights. NLD is working to navigate a pathway that shares and celebrates the depth of Indigenous knowledge, while protecting the sacred, and we invite you to protect it with us.

If you want to learn more about our sources and the guiding principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty, check out the links below:

• Te Mana Raraunga — Māori Data Sovereignty Network
• Indigenous Data Lab
• OCAP® Principles — First Nations Information Governance Centre

Together, let’s make this digital space a place of respect and recognition for Indigenous lands and stories. We look forward to seeing the mindful, empowering ways our community engages with our data.

Ngā mihi,
The Native Land Digital Team

Hello everyone!

We are so grateful for you all! We know it has been a while, but we have some exciting things planned for the next year. We hope you all stay tuned!

Native Land Digital is an Indigenous-led mapping organization that honors the sovereignty of all Indigenous nations, their lands, and their waters. We recognize that these boundaries and territories are representations of the sacred. We respect the rights of Indigenous data sovereignty, and we are committed to an ongoing process of collaboration, growth, and learning.

About the Native Land Digital map:

The Native Land Digital map is a living document that is informed by the contributions of Indigenous communities, Indigenous knowledge holders and their stories. It does not claim to represent official or legal boundaries. We encourage you to connect directly with the Indigenous nations to learn more about their territories and histories.

Why Indigenous Mapping

From an Indigenous perspective, maps are colonial tools and instruments of ownership and oppression. Colonial maps deemed Indigenous lands as terra nullius (vacant land). Under the Doctrine of Discovery, vacant lands could be defined as “discovered”. Maps have been used in the settler colonial process to survey, claim, and re-name Indigenous lands. Colonizers claimed sovereignty, title, and jurisdiction to these lands. However, this doesn’t invalidate Indigenous stories of the land or waters.

Indigenous mapping is an act of decolonial love for lands, waters, and cosmos. Indigenous mapping connects us to our oral stories and histories. We recognize lands and water as animate beings with a life, a will, a design, and an agency of their own. Indigenous languages connect us with the land. Indigenous place names hold the stories of these places. Indigenous mapping foregrounds the life, sovereignty, and stories of Indigenous peoples and nations. They help us to nourish a deep and abiding love for the lands, waters, and cosmos.

Understanding How We Work

The Native Land Digital is an Indigenous-led organization. It was founded in 2015 and incorporated as a non-profit in 2018. Native Land Digital is a small and growing team connected through the lands and waters throughout the globe.

The NLD map is a place to reflect, recognize, and honor Indigenous nations, lands, and waters. It is also used to facilitate conversations and document the territories, languages, and treaties of the lands and waters.

We recognize the importance and sacredness of the Indigenous data our the Native Land Digital Application Programming Interface (API) holds. As such, it is critical that API users also recognize our obligations to sustain and protect this data which is upheld when users agree to the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty.

The map is available on our website and on iOS and Android mobile apps. We are also in the process of updating our resources to go with the map such as a teacher’s guide. Make sure to check back for more updates!

Support Native Land Digital

By joining the Native Land Digital Supporter’s Circle, you help provide opportunities for Indigenous people to develop connections, share resources, discuss issues happening in communities, face ecological and developmental challenges togethers, and use technology in good ways.

As the largest free interactive map of Indigenous lands and waters available online, Native Land reaches millions of users worldwide. We are a small team that is largely funded through grants and donations.

We welcome any donation, no matter how small. Your support will help our team to develop additional resources. Importantly, you help ensure our organization and users uphold ethical obligations to Indigenous data sovereignty and the nations we represent.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Patreon, Substack, and Bluesky!

Thank you,

Native Land Digital

Since 1975, 26 modern treaties have been signed in Canada. Treaties are a significant part of Canadian history, present and future, and learning about treaties is a key part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. Modern Treaties also play an important part in implementing the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Today, modern treaties recognize Indigenous ownership of more than 600,000 square kilometers of land.

Indigenous youth have a vital role to play in implementing modern treaties; however, there is a lack of knowledge about these agreements across Canada. Some of the earlier agreements were negotiated many years ago. As such, the knowledge and experience of the treaty negotiators, Elders and Knowledge Keepers who understand the spirit and intent of the agreements is at risk of being lost. Losing this knowledge could have unintended effects on the gains modern treaties are intended to make in areas such as resource rights, self-governance and environmental stewardship. It is vital that this knowledge is preserved and transferred to younger generations.

In 2017, The Gordon Foundation began responding to the concerns of former and current negotiators and experts working on modern treaty implementation that Indigenous youth were not engaging in their treaties. One of the ways the Foundation responded was by organizing Treaty Negotiation and Implementation Simulations for emerging Indigenous leaders, in collaboration with various communities, organizations, and experts.

The Treaty Simulation model provides a hands-on learning experience to help participants gain knowledge and skills, along with new connections and an interest in learning more about treaties. Participants experience the realities of negotiating and implementing part of a Modern Treaty or Self-Government Agreement, or the implementation of historic treaties in the context of current events.

Hosting Treaty Simulations requires compiling several informative resources for participants to fully understand the context and nuances of the treaties they are negotiating, which is how the Understanding Our Treaties website came to fruition. Understanding Our Treaties (understandingtreaties.ca) was developed with several partners of The Foundation to engage the next generation of leaders in treaties in Canada. The website serves to support and expand the in-person Treaty Simulation model.

On the Understanding Our Treaties website, you can find a suite of resources to begin your treaty learning experience, including a comprehensive video series explaining the history of treaties in Canada, the details of negotiating and implementing modern treaties, and how you can get involved with modern treaties in your career. The website also features a Treaty Resource Collection that contains extensive learning resources from across the country.

A particularly helpful learning resource is the Native Land Map. Native Land Digital maintains a fantastic interactive map that features Indigenous treaties from across the world. With a goal to map Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges and improves the way people see history in their countries, the mission of Native Lands Digital aligns harmoniously with the Understanding Our Treaties goals of education and empowerment.

Incorporating the Native Land Map, particularly the Treaty feature on the interactive map, is an invaluable addition to our learning tools. For example, last year we hosted a Treaty Simulation with Qarjuit Youth Council in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, where participants learned about the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), the first modern treaty in Canada, signed in 1975. Using the Native Lands Map, participants could see the geography of the treaty they were negotiating in relation to other treaties. What’s more, by clicking on the map link, participants could see more information about the treaty, including a pdf copy of the JBNQA itself.

Beyond being a useful resource to Treaty Simulation participants, the treaty feature on the Native Lands Map also serves as a stark visual reminder of how expansive and encompassing treaties are across Canada. While land claims agreements affect specific areas of Canada, their impact is felt throughout the country, and they will increasingly shape the political, cultural, economic and social landscape. The Native Lands Map of treaties is an important reminder that treaties impact all of us.

Resources like the Native Land Map are incredibly useful for promoting conversations about the history of colonialism and land claims agreements in Canada. In featuring resources such as the Native Land Map on Understanding Our Treaties, we hope to continue fostering knowledge transfer and engage emerging leaders in treaties so that Indigenous rights, titles and interest are protected for generations to come.

The Gordon Foundation is a charitable organization. The Foundation is a non-Indigenous organization whose initiatives include Understanding Our Treaties, which provides experiential learning about treaties in collaboration with partners. Check out understandingourtreaties.ca to learn more.

Want to be featured as a guest on the native-land.ca blog? Send us an email and share how you or your organization are working the data into projects to increase Indigenous awareness and educational resources for your community. Email: [email protected] with GUEST BLOG POST in the subject line.

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on April 8, 2023.

A common request that we get is how to make your own maps using Native Land Digital data.

It is possible to do so! The Native Land Digital dataset is made open and available to anyone per a Creative Commons 0 Public Domain license. We have an API for accessing all of the data, which is updated once daily.

This blog post walks through a couple of different options that are available to you to use the Native Land data in your own maps, from an easy one-click print/export option to using the Native Land Digital API data in mapping software such as Mapbox, QGIS, and ArcGIS.

1. Use the print button on the Native Land Digital front page map

If you don’t have any experience with GIS software, this is probably the best option for you.

On the Native Land Digital front page map, there is a print button on the bottom right.

Clicking this will export a screen-size PNG image of your current view of the map:

2. For Mapbox, use the Native Land Digital public tileset

Mapbox and Native Land Digital provide a public tileset for territories that is updated daily (whenever new areas have been added).

You can access the Mapbox Tileset ID, a breakdown of the properties, and a quick json recipe on Mapbox's data exchange repository on github.

You can use this Native Land Digital tileset in any Mapbox maps, whether you are building your own maps using Mapbox GL JS, or using Mapbox Studio.

To add the tileset to a Mapbox Studio style, go to Add Layer -> Add source by ID, and paste in the tileset ID from the above Github repository.

This Mapbox story map by Digital Democracy uses the Native Land Digital tileset to show territory names on the map:

3. For QGIS, use the Native Land Digital geojson file generated by the API

On the Native Land Digital API page, you can download json files for the Territories, Languages, and Treaties data. These files are updated daily with any new additions that have been made.

If you click on the files in the browser, you may see something like this that could look unfamiliar if you haven’t worked with geojson data before:

But fret not, this file can easily be worked with in QGIS (and also converted to other geospatial formats you might be more familiar with, like shapefiles).

First, download the json file that you want to work with.

In QGIS, you can simply drop this json file onto your map canvas, or add the file via the menu by going to Layer -> Add Layer -> Add Vector Layer and selecting the file. That will prompt a popup to add the data as a polygon:

From here, the layer will be added, and you can use QGIS to further style the data, make selection of areas, or anything else.

Here, I have created a quick layer with any territories that roughly intersect with the Caribbean, added a blue-greenish color ramp, and added labels:

4. For ArcGIS, use the Native Land Digital feature layer on ArcGIS Online Living Atlas

If you are an ArcGIS user, it used to be more challenging to incorporate Native Land Digital data into your maps. It is possible to download the geojson file as in the second method outlined above, and convert it into a shapefile using an online tool like mapshaper; however, this process can be a bit messy if you are not used to working with geojson files.

But we have good news — we have recently added a territories feature layer to ArcGIS Online that is set to update with the latest Native Land Digital data every Sunday! And as of February 22, 2023 this feature layer is now available in the ArcGIS Living Atlas!

You can open this feature layer in ArcGIS Online to make your own web maps, and you are free to style this layer however you want.

From the feature layer item page on ArcGIS, you can also download a pitemx or pitem file to use in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap.

Here, I have opened the Native Land Digital territories feature layer in ArcGIS Pro and given the shapes a gray-ish hue:

As of February 2023, you can now simply add the Native Land Digital territories feature layer via the Living Atlas:

Have you made a beautiful or interesting map using the Native Land Digital API dataset? We would love to see it, and if you are open to it, feature it on our blog! Feel free to send us your maps at [email protected] .

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on January 7, 2023.

Our Home on Native Land: Connecting People and Stories using Indigenous Geographies

Tanya Ruka, Mātanga Kōtuitui Pāpori (Community Relationship Specialist), Native Land Digital Rudo Kemper, Board Member and Interim Director of Technology, Native Land Digital

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on November 18, 2022.

Hello everyone!

Native Land Digital, a Canadian non-profit, is holding our annual AGM (Annual General Meeting) on Thursday, February 10, 2022 — and you’re invited to join us.

This public meeting will run from 3:00pm — 6:00pm PST (6:00pm to 9:00pm EST) on February 10 2022. Beginning at 3:00pm we’ll be welcoming in whoever is interested in coming by to participate in the formal component of our meeting.

This year we decided to do something a little different and build in space to hear from you. Once we’ve made our way through our Agenda, we’ll keep our meeting open for a few hours for you, our online community, to come by and chat with the Native Land team and Board of Directors. You’re welcome to ask questions, give suggestions, or just pop in to say hello!

To register, please fill out this form and we’ll send you a link.

AGM REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Native Land Digital Team

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on January 7, 2022.

The Indigenous Lands and Decolonization document is an informational piece created for the HOPE Lab at the University of Calgary.

This piece details information on Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8, as well as an overview of Indigenous communities residing in these areas. The document also discusses what decolonization looks like and why it is important.

The purpose of this document is to provide incoming lab members with information on the territory we live on and our relationship to this land.

Our hope is that by providing a detailed overview of these treaties, this document will go beyond a land acknowledgement to encourage lab members to recognize their place on this territory and reflect on the legacy of colonialism. As settlers who conduct our work on traditional lands, we felt it was crucial that this land and the communities who have taken care of it were deliberately acknowledged in our lab.

Native Land played a central role in the creation of this piece as it provided a clear representation of Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8 territory.

As one of our primary objectives was to acknowledge the traditional lands of what is colonially known as Alberta, the interactive map provided by Native Land made it easy to locate these regions. Native Land was a unique resource in the creation of this document as it represented our personal relationships to the land.

The map specifically showed where our city is located in the larger Treaty 7 region, which informed our detailed section on the treaty, and our discussion of Moh-kins-tsis (i.e., the City of Calgary).

Moreover, we were able to list other major Albertan cities in Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8 territory which created a thorough overview of Alberta’s traditional lands.

Native Land greatly contributed to the success of our project by emphasizing Indigenous perspectives of this land and how settler Canadians relate to it.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOPE LAB HERE Want to be featured as a guest on the native-land.ca blog? Send us an email and share how you or your organization are working the data into projects to increase Indigenous awareness and educational resources for your community. Email: [email protected] with GUEST BLOG POST in the subject line.

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on October 26, 2021.

A guest blog post submitted by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book at Penn State University Libraries featuring the Cultural Tour of Pennsylvania and Missing Voices lesson plans developed by Erica King, curriculum specialist, and the Center’s Literary & Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Center for the Book is a state affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. This blog entry was written by: Nicole Miyashiro (she/her), writer-in-residence.

To understand the silenced histories of Indigenous and underrepresented people, we must first identify who is missing.

The Cultural Tour of Pennsylvania Lesson Plan developed by Pennsylvania Center for the Book curriculum specialist, Erica King, is part of the Center’s initiative to populate its geospatial Literary & Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania with more biographies of underrepresented figures to counter the erasure phenomenon and incorporate missing voices in classroom curricula.

The Native Land geospatial map of Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages has been a valuable resource in the development of this lesson plan by informing questions that task secondary students with considering the full history of Pennsylvania regions from physiographic and geographic perspectives. Such questions include:

• Who lived here? When?
• What is their story? Their tradition, language, and culture?
• Why isn’t this commonly known?
• What purpose do boundaries serve?

As the 23 rdUS Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, says in a speech at the Poets Forum in New York City:

“It was essentially illegal to write or perform poetry in our native languages until the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978. … Because most of us did not write our literature down in English words, rather kept them in memory and passed them on, we were considered illiterate. Yet, there are vast stores of literature that exist and are living in the imagination. The keepers and creators of those literatures keep it alive by speaking it, often by singing it.”

Cross-referencing Native Land with other related projects — such as Harjo’s geospatial Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry and the Center’s Cultural Tour lesson plan -confronts the challenge of reconstructing and reclaiming histories in real time and simultaneously solidifying their rightful place in common knowledge; for example, Native Land displays a clear disclaimer that its content is “in a constant state of research and adjustment.”

The ongoing responsibility to acknowledge, document, and honor these histories is shared. With Native Land as a ready resource, the Cultural Tour of Pennsylvania Lesson Plan calls students to “acknowledge the history of selected regions,” to “note overlapping territories that represent the deep history of the land,” and to consider extending their study with the Missing Voices: Biography Lesson Plan, an invitation to identify and write a short biographical essay on a figure who “significantly contributed to a geographic area” and “whose voice is missing” from the Center’s Literary & Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania.

“‘We are already diversifying’ is not an appropriate response when talking about Indigenous people,” professional educator and social justice activist, Claudia A. Fox Tree (Arawak/Yurumein) explains on the topic of decolonizing curriculum, “because every other ethnic, racial, and religious group that is living in the United States has another place in the world where their ancestors are from. There is already a place for their people and their voices, experiences, examples, history, and contributions, to be experienced and told. We should absolutely expect to learn the true and accurate stories of this land, and this land’s longest occupants, especially when we reside on this land where the people and their stories happened.”

Another call to action that anyone can take, student or not, is to utilize Native Land in developing a Tribal Land Acknowledgement (TLA). This also “makes visible the Indigenous people of the land where you are,” Fox Tree says.

With geospatial maps emerging with a mission to restore the histories and missing voices of the land on which we live and breathe, we must next strive for the collaborative understanding that underpins peace and unity. The Center is grateful to Native Land for its comprehensive and continued contributions to this collective spirit and action. “Maybe,” Harjo invites in Living Nations, Living Words, “we are at the place where many roads come together under the dimming sun.”

For more information about the Cultural Tour of Pennsylvania and Missing Voices: Biography lesson plans, visit The As Penn State University employees, we acknowledge The Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations. As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history. Pennsylvania Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Center for the Book established in 1977 at the Library of Congress and is sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries. It encourages Pennsylvania’s citizens and residents to study, honor, celebrate, and promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy. Curricula & Teaching Materials on the Pennsylvania Center for the Book website or contact Erica King ([email protected]), curriculum specialist.

Sources:

Fox Tree, Claudia (M.Ed.). “Tribal Land Acknowledgement — What They are and Why We Need to do Them.” Embracing Equity. 6 July 2021. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021. https://embracingequity.org/blog/tribal-land-acknowledgements#

Harjo, Joy. “Ancestors: A Mapping of Indigenous Poetry and Poets.” Delivered as the Blaney Lecture on October 9, 2015, at Poets Forum in New York City. Poets.org. 23 Nov. 2015. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021. https://poets.org/text/ancestors-mapping-indigenous-poetry-and-poets

Harjo, Joy. “Introduction” and “Conclusion.” Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry. Library of Congress. 2020. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021. https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=be31c5cfc7614d6680e6fa47be888dc3&fbclid=IwAR0sOMCeGbWVln8Z2Zk7gqOjJwsPVePP3XzzfSNnBJgq3Ie-sslK5qfs2xI&bookmark=Introduction

King, Erica. “Cultural Tour of PA Lesson Plan.” Penn State University Libraries: Pennsylvania Center for the Book. 2021. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021. https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/cultural-tour-pa-lesson-plan

King, Erica. “Missing Voices: Biography Lesson Plan.” Penn State University Libraries: Pennsylvania Center for the Book. 2020. Accessed 28 Sept. 2021. https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/missing-voices-lesson-plan
Penn State Educational Equity. “Acknowledgement of Land: In collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples Student Association (IPSA) and the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance (IFSA).” Penn State Office of Educational Equity website. 2021. 29 Sept. 2021. http://equity.psu.edu/acknowledgement-of-land

Originally published at https://native-land.ca on October 26, 2021.