Roots & Shoots Online Guide - Jane Goodall Institute of Canada : Jane Goodall

Step 2: Map Your Community.

Community mapping is a vibrant way of telling a community’s story. It involves identifying relationships, needs, and resources – and recording them in the form of a map.

Get Started: Opening Circle

Start this step by exploring what “community” means to you and those you are working with. Allow each participant to share their passion and understanding for their community or communities.

Discuss the concept of interconnectedness and interdependence. In every community, people and animals interact with the environment and have an impact on one another. How are animals, people, and the environment connected?

Get Specific: Select Your Community

Choose an area to map out – and make sure this area lets you examine issues that are relevant, and of interest, to you and your group. When working on your map, consider spaces that reflect and represent both Indigenous communities as well as non-Indigenous communities.

Indigenous Community Examples	Non-Indigenous Community Examples
Friendship Centre	School
First Nation Community	Neighbourhood
Traditional Land	City

Get More Specific: Pick Your Map Format

Will your map be hand-drawn based on your observations, created on top of a printed sheet map, imposed over a map from Google Maps, or something completely different? It’s up to you – mapper’s choice!

Get Mapping: Basic Concepts

Information sources for your map can include talking with an Elder, speaking to young people, examining existing maps, looking through directories of businesses and municipal services, asking your local council, checking municipal parks and conservation association websites, looking online for satellite images, talking to neighbours and community members, and more!

Choose the concepts and ideas shown below that apply to your chosen community – and then mark the applicable concepts and ideas on your community map.

Animals	People	Environment
Endangered/at-risk species	Residential areas	Vegetation areas
Areas of domestic animal use	Your school	Bodies of water
Wild animals in the area	Transportation routes	Mountain ranges, beaches, and hills
Common animal crossings	Recreation areas and buildings	Conservation areas
Areas of livestock and farming	Farming and agricultural lands	Carbon sinks
Animal clinics and shelters	Community places and buildings	Land degradation
	Cultural heritage sites	Growing areas for traditional medicinal plants
	Other land uses
	Indigenous lands and territories
	Planned future construction

Get Mapping: Record Your Ideas

Ask yourselves these questions: Who are the members of the community? What are the needs of these members? Are those needs met? What resources in the community can be better utilized to address those needs?

Create the chart below for your project, and use the chart to keep building out your map. (The one shown below is filled in with examples.) You can also download this worksheet.

Community	Who?	Needs?	Are Needs Met?	Resources
Animals	Wetland species	Healthy habitat	Current habitat is healthy, but will disappear with environment	Local wildlife advocacy group
People	Local residents	More housing for growing population	No, they require more housing	Town hall discussions
Environment	Local wetland	Protection from pollution and disturbances	No, wetlands are being replaced by new homes	Local wetland conservation group

When you see gaps in your chart, you can understand what information you need to seek out. Use our worksheet to help identify gaps. Further explore your community and find more information using these methods:

Walk and chat with an Elder
Interview community service groups
Survey households
Read First Nation, Metis, or Inuit stories
Interview conservationists, historians, and other experts
Examine local newspapers and archives

When you are happy with the information you have collected from the community, go back to your map to make changes and additions to reflect the new details.

Get Reflective: Closing Circle

Before you head out and take action, reflect on what you’ve learned about your community now that you have completed your map. Gather with your group and talk through these questions:

What themes have emerged through your research?
Did you find different results than you expected when you started?
What did you learn about the relationships between animals, people, and the environment?
Do you think there are members whose needs are not being met? If so, which members?
Do you think some members’ needs are being met at the risk of the needs of others?
What are these needs? Are they truly needs or are they wants?
Which issues or concerns in the community did you find particularly interesting?
What issue or concern do you feel is most important to address? Why?

More Food for Thought

Interview tips:

Do your homework: Have some basic knowledge of the subject before you conduct your interview.
Have questions prepared: Be prepared with questions, but also be able to ask unplanned questions based on the respondent’s answers. Use open-ended questions that are useful for encouraging meaningful answers – because they tend to get at the subject’s knowledge, feelings, and experiences.
Listen: One common mistake some interviewers make is planning the next question as the person answers the previous one. You miss important information if you are not listening closely.

Indigenous community engagement practices:

When approaching an Elder or Knowledge Keeper, bring traditional tobacco. This traditional practice is important when building relationships. Offering tobacco is understood as a contract or a promise between yourself, the person you are meeting with, and the Creator. If you are meeting virtually, you can also mail tobacco. The Elder will return the tobacco if they are unable to accept your request.
Sitting with, and listening to, Elders and community members is important if you intend to support Indigenous Peoples in your event, your work, or your community. It is also good practice if you want information about specific communities.
When sitting down with an Elder, ask permission before recording your conversation. Cultural history, stories, and contracts are often oral and passed down only through oral communication, so obtaining permission is important.
It is important to cultivate trust with the community and its members. Being genuine, open-minded, and present is essential to developing these relationships. Consistency and transparency is important, too, as it may not happen overnight.
Always ask the community what they consider to be most needed. Never assume that you know the community better than its own members.
Traditionally, Indigenous Peoples believe there is an equal balance or importance between animals, people, and the planet. To learn more about the roles that things in their environment play in their lives, listen to teachings and stories that the community shares about their land.
Understand that Indigenous Knowledge is not stuck in the past, but remains current and relevant. Find a place of mutual understanding and respect.
Remember that each Indigenous community is different. The best course of action is to ask how to work together. The people you meet and open to sharing, provided you are open to hearing the answers.

Go to the next step

Go back to the guide

Your Online Guide