Felice Yarbough,  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Park Ranger   Felice is part of the Houston Community Partnerships and Engagement Program, helping to bring nature & wildlife within reach of young people who might not normally have access.      Felice recently posted a narrative which eloquently described her history and current thoughts on being a Black woman interested in a science traditionally dominated by white people.  Below are some highlights: #BlackWomenWhoBird: A Personal Reflection   #BlackInNature "I was fortunate to grow up enjoying the outdoors. It was safe. I played in the leaves that fell from the giant oak tree in the backyard. I made mud pies, discovered an albino ladybug, and I even sat in an ant pile (do not recommend). Still, I didn’t see anyone that looked like me in outdoorsy professions. My role models growing up were engineers, doctors, teachers, people in business, my mom – a scientist who rarely spent a moment outside of the laboratory. When I started to pursue interests in animal sciences, agriculture and conservation, I accepted my choice to be a minority in the field, knowing that I would likely be the only one around who looked like me."   " When I heard the recent story of Christian Cooper, a black man who was birding in Central Park when a false police report was called in by a white woman who claimed harassment, it resonated with me. Whether at national wildlife refuges or in other green spaces, it could have been me. I could have been perceived as a threat or someone who didn’t belong."    "I’m grateful to be a ranger. I’m striving to be the conservation role model that I wish I had growing up. I love the work that I’m doing in Houston – getting to work with kids, many who look like me. I don’t take it for granted. I want them to experience nature in ways I didn’t. Advocacy and mentorship are more important to me now than ever before. As I heard Christian Cooper recently say “birds are modern-day dinosaurs,” and to me that’s something that everyone can get excited about. There is so much work to be done to truly make access to nature equitable for all, but it’s an investment worth making." Below, Felice interviews Shruthi Srinivasan, Geospatial Analyst with the Texas Forest Service, about drones used for monitoring fire ecology, for the Virtually WILD! Texas program (xPOC xBlack xAfricanAmerican xWomen xUSA xUSFWS xPark xConservation xEducation xYouth xUrban xBird xStorytelling xJournalism xAdvocacy) ... View more

 Taipuni Ruakere (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki). Affiliation: Te Kā*** o Taranaki Role:  Toa Taiao (Māori description for my environmental role) (Photo Above: Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)  (2020 Video Introduction, courtesy Taipuni Ruakere) Organization name: Te Kā*** o Taranaki Address: 1 Young Street, New Plymouth 4310,  New Zealand Main email: admin@taranaki.iwi.nz Web site: https://taranaki.iwi.nz/ x2020 x2020Scholar x2020Talk xEducation xLandscape xPacific xNewZealand xAotearoa xYouth xFirstNation, xData, xClimate, xMonitoring  xSurvey  xAdvocacy  xSustainableDevelopment xTraditional xIndigenous xTEK xTribal xTribalStewardship xTribalSovereignty  xTribalSovereignty  xArcGIS  xSurvey123  xStorymap INTRODUCTION: “For many years the environmental and GIS space has been determined and led by government agencies such as the local councils and Department of Conservation. Our tribal voice has not been at the forefront of issues pertaining to our environment and conservation. Nor have we been at the table when significant decisions are made about these areas.   In 2017 the Taranaki tribe reached a settlement with the government and were awarded compensation for the huge losses suffered by our ancestors in the 1860s. We now have an economic base on which to build our tribe’s future. GIS is a key area that we want to grow and develop moving forward. Implementing GIS into our organisation will allow us to build our own layers of information based on our own matauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and kōrero tuku iho (oral knowledge) according to our Taranaki tribal/indigenous world view.   GIS provides a powerful tool to address the environmental issues we currently face in our region such as adverse agricultural practices, the impacts of the oil and gas industry, increased carbon emissions and climate change. These areas continue to impact on our waterways, ecosystems, our cultural values and the mauri (life force) of Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and our people. GIS is integral in supporting us to transition towards a healthier environment for future generations.   Finally, this training provides a vehicle to empower our tribe and our people to engage, train and undertake this work within our tribal lands guided by the cultural values, protocols and practices of our tūpuna (ancestors).   “Ko te oranga o te whenua, ko te oranga o te tangata The Health of the environment is the Health of the people”   ORGANIZATION:  Te Kā*** O Taranaki Trust is a post treaty settlement entity that was established following resolution with the Crown in 2017. The trust represents and works on behalf of the descendants of Taranaki iwi (one of eight indigenous tribes of the Taranaki region). The key goals of the organisation are to be a representative voice of the people, to ensure our cultural, social, environmental and commercial activities are well managed. In addition, the trust is to ensure that Taranaki iwi receive benefit; including direct funding, grants, workshops, governance and financial training and support.   Since 2017 the trust has established a number of operational roles in the areas of administration, community development and environmental management to support the marae (tribal gathering place), pā (tribal village) and hapū (sub-tribe) of Taranaki iwi. The trust has allocated funding to support marae and pā with their various projects and provided financial donations to support students enrolled in secondary and tertiary education. A key objective for the trust is a focus on developing the next generation through organising workshops for youth to participate in. These have been hugely successful in building relationships among young people and connecting them to their language, identity and culture.  (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere) I started my role with the Te Kā*** o Taranaki Environmental team in September 2019. My role involves walking and capturing the health of the whenua (land), awa (rivers) and moana (ocean). I work from home which is based on our marae (tribal gathering place) at Puniho Pā in coastal Taranaki. (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere) A major part of our role is to collect data, such as personal observations, matauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge), alongside scientific knowledge, GIS tools and field collector apps. With this information we wish to build our tribal database and utilise this information to support our marae and hapū to challenge resource consents, development and adverse practices on the land, waterways and near our cultural sites.  (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere) In recent months we have developed a work plan with our hapū to guide our work on the ground. This has resulted in the development of The Matanehunehu Awa Catchment Plan alongside Puniho Pā and working alongside the Department of Conservation and Oakura Pā to restore Te Koru Pā. This is a brief overview of these projects. Matanehunehu  Awa Catchment Project The Matanehunehu awa (river) flows from the western slopes of Mount Taranaki just below the National Park forest near the top of Pūniho Rd, down past Pūniho Pā, to the river mouth between Paora Rd and Pūniho Rd into Te Tai O Rehua (Tasman Sea). The focus in this project is to capture the historical and cultural narratives along the  river, to measure the health of the water, riparian planting and mobilizing members of our hapū (sub-tribe) and wider community to get involved in the ongoing management of the catchment. I have been tasked with sourcing map data from the Taranaki Regional Council locating discharge consents into the catchment. I have walked the river and created a map identifying, riparian margins, weeds, erosion, watercress and water monitoring sites. I have added discharge and land use consents and photographs of community planting along the banks of the river. I have organised interviews with some of our elders to record their experiences of traditional food gathering along the river. Other data includes Māori land blocks and historical imagery sourced from The Māori Land Court and Retrolens. (MAP:  Matanehunehu Stream: Riparian planting locations, weeds and erosion  ) I have engaged with the regional council to instigate a weed management plan which is in progress. I have met with landowners/farmers living along our river and have gained clearance to walk and gather GIS data along the entire length of the river.  Te Koru Pā Restoration Project Te Koru Pā is one of thirteen historic reserves that are cared for by the Taranaki tribe. Te Koru Pā is regarded as one of the most unique sites in New Zealand because of the design and archaeological features within the pā.  (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)   A key environmental and cultural issue in the pā is the presence of over 70 trees that are dying and the growth of plants along many of the stone riveted banks and ditches. My role in this project has involved helping to clear many of the weed plants present on the stone walls and trailing Survey 123 app to map the location of the dying tree species.   We are currently engaging with the Ngāti Tairi tribe to discuss and formalise the next steps in this project.     Above & Below:  Survey 123 Apps for Te Kā*** o Taranaki Above: Location of trees that need to be removed (Survey 123 trial) (Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)   On the horizon: -Eradicate all weeds along the Matanehunehu stream -Plant the rest of the Matanehunehu stream with locally grown trees -Monitor trap lines at Puniho and Waikirikiri Reserve -Initiate the Oakuramatapu Awa Management Plan -Formalise Te Koru Pā restoration plan with Ngāti Tairi -Organise and deliver taiao wānanga (environmental workshops) -Organise and deliver GIS training within the environmental team -Present GIS data back to whānau, hapū and iwi   (Photo Below: Te Para, Myself and Hiona helping to relocate Toutouwai (North Island Robin), on Mount Taranaki. Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)   HISTORY: Please describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: I have helped to plant over 20,000 trees at our local beach reserve at Komene beach and Mokotunu (beach reserve). I was involved in relocating harakeke (flax) to be planted along the banks of the Matanehunehu stream at Puniho. More recently I have been involved in checking and re-baiting predator traps along the Matanehunehu stream and the local reserve in Okato. . (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)    We have three tamariki (children) that are educated at home and in our local community. Whenever possible we have supported local initiatives and environmental groups such as Te Whenua Tōmuri Trust, Taranaki Tou Kai, the Department of Conservation and the Taranaki Regional Council. Some of the projects we have supported include, riparian planting, vegetable gardens, bird relocation on the maunga (mountain), protecting dotterels, pā site protection and water monitoring along our rivers and streams. Through these opportunities our family have established strong relationships with like-minded people in the community and gained many new skills along the way. As a family we have become better connected and have gained a better understanding and appreciation of the environment around us.   My interest in GIS began through my previous employment with CORE Education (2013-18). Over a period of four years I attended a Google Summit, two Indigenous Mapping Wānanga in Hamilton and I was a participant at the Geo for Good User Summit in San Francisco in October 2018. I have met many knowledgeable and generous people involved in GIS at these conferences including Duane Wilkins and Moka Apiti. Duane in particular has become a close friend and mentor supporting me with many aspects of GIS.   During my role as a Learning with Digital Technologies facilitator at CORE Education I delivered mapping workshops to help students talk about their pepeha (tribal narrative) and helped teachers to map their local indigenous narratives.   2017:  I developed a mapping resource for Oakura School to help teachers and students with the pronunciation of local place names.   2018:  Virtual Mapping Field Trip to Puniho Pā and Mount Taranaki. In August 2018 I helped to coordinate a virtual mapping field trip on Mount Taranaki with the CORE Education LEARNZ team, Taranaki and Te Atiawa tribes, LINZ and the Department of Conservation. This was a Virtual Mapping Field Trip based at Puniho Pā and Mount Taranaki. This project was delivered through the CORE Education LEARNZ team in collaboration with Taranaki and Te Atiawa tribes, LINZ, The Taranaki Mounga Project and The Department of Conservation. The field trip was delivered over three days to over 2,500 students in New Zealand and the content of the trip included local tribal narratives about the mountain, mapping and monitoring the Hangataahua river, predator management, relocation of native birds and mapping at Rotokare Wildlife Sanctuary.   Finally, I had a lead role in a collaborative research project between CORE Education, Puniho Pā and Coastal Taranaki school in 2018. This project integrated aspects of GIS (Google tools and Esri Story Maps) and conservation alongside overnight camps, weekly excursions and coding club to help strengthen the wellbeing of a group of Māori boys in our community.   2012  In 2012 my wife and I also worked as Waste Advisors for Para Kore (An Indigenous Waste Minimisation Organisation). Our role involved presenting and delivering workshops on Marae (Māori gathering places) and community organisations on how to minimise the rubbish they create through reducing, reusing and recycling and composting their waste.    Photo : Facilitating a Para Kore Wānanga at Puniho Pā in 2012 (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere) Photo : Facilitating a waste audit with Puniho Pā whānau in 2012  (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)   Do you have any connections with SCGIS or your local SCGIS chapter:? At present, I’m not involved with SCGIS but my intention in the future is to volunteer, as another opportunity to gain experience and knowledge in GIS and to support our local community.  I am well connected to our local community and would be very keen to help other volunteers in the organisation to build relationships with our local tribal organisations in the Taranaki region.   I have built strong relationships with various people involved in GIS in New Zealand such as Duane Wilkins (LINZ) and Moka Apiti (Digital Navigators). I also recently met Parker Jones (NZ SCGIS), Markus Heke, Sean Bragg and Aaria Dobson-Waitere (SCGIS Scholar Recipients) at the recent Māori GIS conference in Rotorua. Parker urged me to apply for this scholarship following a conversation about ArcGIS collector tools.   Current GIS capability: -I attended Indigenous Mapping Wānanga 2017 and 2018 in Hamilton -I also attended the Geo For Good User Summit in San Francisco about and presented a demo about our Map My Waahi virtual field trip in Taranaki -I’ve also participated in GIS courses delivered by Duane Wilkins through the Māori GIS Facebook group (Google tools and Esri Story Maps) -Have delivered workshops with schools (Māori and English medium) using Google My Maps and Google Earth -Can operate basic ArcGIS functions i.e basic map creation and Esri story maps -I have developed a river survey using Survey 123 -I have developed and trialed a condition report for one of our significant pā sites (fortification) in Taranaki using Survey 123 -I have recently completed our Awa Catchment Management Plan for our hapū (sub-tribe) which includes many GIS elements   GIS topics of interest: -How to use data collection apps in the field to help monitor rivers, marine and cultural/historical sites -How to analyse field data effectively in the office -How to build innovative story maps for our cultural and environmental sites -3D mapping to highlight geographical features in the landscape such as land, mountains, rivers, pā sites (forts) -Have discussions around data and intellectual property rights. Who has control/rights over data, where is it being stored etc     Do you have any experiences in teaching or  leadership?: After attending various GIS conferences I saw enormous value in these tools to support students to learn about their indigenous culture. From 2015-18 I integrated GIS into my role as a facilitator supporting New Zealand schools with digital technologies. During this time culturally responsive practice and placed based learning became a focus in the New Zealand curriculum. I delivered workshops to groups of teachers (staff sizes varied between 10-20) and students (class sizes varied between 15 to 25).   I facilitated workshops in Kura Kaupapa Māori (Māori medium settings) where the focus was on teaching children how to share their (Pepeha) cultural stories using Google My Maps and Google Earth. Students enjoyed the interactive features of these tools and found them easy to navigate. I facilitated workshops with teachers in Primary and Secondary schools and demonstrated how Google tools can help them to build relationships and learn about narratives related to the Māori people living in their communities, i.e Significant sites, Māori place names.  (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)   What is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do?: The job I have is a dream role and most days I have to pinch myself. My office is based outdoors alongside rivers, the ocean and the land. I feel privileged to be able to work in a space that allows me to connect to the environment everyday and to walk in the footprints left by my ancestors alongside my whānau (family). There are numerous challenges in the work that we do in the conservation/GIS space.   The huge inequities that continue to exist with central and local government and our tribes concerning the management and protection of the environment.    Another major challenge is working in a space where our lands were confiscated from our Taranaki ancestors by the government through the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863. The impact of this legislation has resulted in the devastation of entire ecosystems, whole Māori communities, cultural and economic loss and the degradation of the mauri of Papatuānuku (life force of Mother Earth). On a daily basis we continue to see the destructive practises on these lands and waterways by land owners, local industries and developers.     Our shared aspiration is for our indigenous values and traditional knowledge to be recognised, reflected and applied in the management of our environment.     Furthermore, we would like our tribal environmental strategy document (Taiao, Taiora) adopted, legislated and adhered to by government organisations, landowners and developers.   GIS is a key tool to challenge and change current legislation, processes and adverse practises that do not align with our indigenous values and traditional and contemporary knowledge systems. Moreover, the well being of our environment is a key for the well being of all people. Ko te oranga o te whenua, ko te oranga o te tangata.   (Photo Courtesy Taipuni Ruakere)     2020 Scgis Paper Presentation: Title  Ko te oranga o te whenua, ko te oranga o te tangata The Health of the environment is the Health of the people   Abstract: From 1860 to 1881 the Māori tribes of Taranaki endured the unprecedented loss of over 1.5 million acres of land that consequently led to the decline of their social, economic and cultural wellbeing.   A kōrero (saying) that emerged during these dark days was as follows: “Ko te mate o te whenua, ko te mate o te tangata”- which roughly translates as “the death of the land is the death of the people”. Sadly, we continue to see the manifestation of these events in our present generation of Māori living in Taranaki. In general, Māori people continue to be highly represented in the areas of health care, corrections, homelessness, education underachievement and cultural disconnection.   This paper proposes that the healing of the people is found within the healing of the environment. This project will explore how the latest GIS technology can assist our people, young and old to reconnect to their awa (rivers), moana (oceans) and whenua (land) as a pathway to transform the negative statistics that Māori people face.   Through walking and mapping the landscape, field data collection and the capturing of narratives told by the elders, the people of Taranaki will have a means of reconnecting to their culture and taiao (natural world) as kaitiaki (guardians) and experience improved health and wellbeing as expressed in this aspirational kōrero: ‘Ko te oranga o te whenua, ko te oranga o te tangata” The Health of the environment is the Health of the people     ... View more

Navigation:  2017 Scholar Project  2017Conference   ReferenceProject   CommunitiesPage   ConservationGIS  Scgis.org            Yogendra K Karna , University of Melbourne/Nepal Ministry Forests  xForest xPPP  xPublicParticipation Planning  xPlan  xCommunity  xResources  X2017Scholar  x2017Talk  xTalk  xScholar  xNepal  xAsia *-Organization name: School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne *-Organization full street address (in your local format): 4 Water Street, Creswick, Victoria 3363, Australia Parent Organization (Previous Employer): Department of Forests, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, Nepal *-Organization full mailing address, if different: *-Country: Australia *-Work phone with country and area code: +61353214257 OR +61410207191 *-Work fax with country and area code: *-Main email: ykarna@student.unimelb.edu.au *-Organization Web site URL if any: http://ecosystemforest.unimelb.edu.au/ *-ORGANIZATION’S WORK Presently, I am a Ph.D. student at The University of Melbourne, Australia but have worked for Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal for 18 years before joining the University. Therefore, I am going to describe my parent organization which is a government agency and mainly established for the conservation, management, and planning of forest resources in overall countries. It works for local communities, district level stakeholders to the national level organization and aims to conserve and manage the your personal role in the organization: While working as a DFO in Dolpa, one of the remotest areas of Nepal, there were significant issues of the sustainable and equitable harvest of Yarsagumba (Ophiocordyceps sinensis). Harvest and sale of Yarsagumba is a primary source of subsistence income for local people and revenue generation for government. However, residents were deprived of the benefits from the harvest of Cordyceps, since outsiders from adjoining districts encroach their areas and collect the Cordyceps illegally before maturity. Therefore, I developed a management plan and a guideline for the sustainable and equitable harvest of  Corcyceps, which is widely followed even to this day in Dolpa. Before the formalization of the management plan and the guideline, a comprehensive consultation was carried out with many different stakeholders such as collectors, traders, forest officials, Forest Users, Forest entrepreneurs, District Development Committee, Village Development Committees, local politicians, etc. Detailed resource inventory including social data collection, group discussions, and feedback sessions was conducted before finalization and approval from the government. I have accomplished the work in ensuring the equitable and sustainable harvest of Cordyceps for the locals, which will ultimately enhance the livelihood of the rural population. This hard work was well appreciated by local users, district level organizations, DoF and MFSC. I have worked in DoF as an Assistant Planning Officer for 20 months looking after the detailed planning process for the nationally  prioritized forestry development programs. Earlier, plans were formulated based on incomplete information and data in the absence of a proper database. I developed the first Forest MIS with the spatial database, which facilitated in speeding up the planned activities and delivering efficient and effective regular progress reporting system. I frequently visited the districts where conducted several GIS training from a grassroots level which involves the participation of field level staff as well as community workers who use this skill for the optimization of conservation of the forest resources at local and district level. history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: I had a dream from the beginning of my career to conserving and manage forest resources using RS and GIS as one of the vibrant and efficient tools which were only possible seven years ago when I was  posted in one of the District Forest Office. At that time, I took part in 15 day GIS training and accelerate myself the skill of GIS to integrate with local level conservation of forest resources, for example,delineating the hotspot of the threatened plant and wild animals in the districts. It develops my expertise for further exploration of GIS skills and knowledge as well as the use of this understanding in the field of forestry which ultimately conserve the resource to manage it sustainably and benefit the local people in the long run. After a couple of years, I was offered a scholarship to do my Master of Science Degree in NRM with GIS specialization which boosted up my knowledge in regular series.  After completing my MSc degree, I was planning to involve in a project which could design the spatial database and enhances the  governance system of the Ministry of Forests through the application of GIS and RS techniques. Thus, I drove myself towards planning the project with support from donor agencies such as DFID, SWISS, and Finland government. It was a great platform to develop my expertise as well as contribute to the conservation and management of the forest resources in the district. In the first year, I have planned a pilot project entitled as "Digital Demarcation and Mapping" in 2014 with the aim of developing the database and analyzing the data for updating the status of different forest management regime of the districts. From the next year, I have planned through the regular budget with the contribution of local people for delineation of several forest management system such as community forests, leasehold forest, protected forests, hotspots, encroachment area, etc. It provided the robust database and several thematic as well as individual forest type maps of each of the forests in the districts. Those maps and  database are still stored in the central server of the Department of Forests, Ministry of Forests and local Forest offices, as well as the community, forests offices in the district.  Thus, I am confident with the work that I could have done with the support from the local level to central level and move towards the conservation of the forest's resources from encroachment which will provide the maps of each forest types in the district that can be accessible from the concerned agencies and local offices. connection to the local SCGIS chapter:I had recently made contact with the Nepal SCGIS chapter and committed to being connected and involved in this chapter. Furthermore, I have already a member of Nepal GIS Society and Nepal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and recently been a member of SCGIS from January 2017. I have been contributing to GIS training, data sharing, tutoring and mentoring the GIS interested people, student and community in Nepal which provides me a tremendous opportunity to learn the several aspects of conservation issues and its solution through GIS platforms. what is the most unique and the most challenging about your work: . The most uniqueness and innovation of the work is an aggregation of all the data of the several forest management regime, threatened and vulnerable hotspots and forest resource status which can be readily used by the local people, district forestry officers, community users, decision makers, researchers and students from one platform for different purposes. Nepal being a developing country has a weak implementation of research findings due to the financial constraints. There are less capable and competent human resources of implementing the new technology and knowledge. Lack of sufficient budget to implement the innovative techniques coupled with unpredictable bureaucratic procedures may inhibit me from achieving the envisaged tasks successfully and on time. 2017 Conference Paper: "Development of participatory GIS approach for digital demarcation, database design, and update of several forest management regime of Nepal." *-Abstract/summary:  Identification, demarcation and spatial database generation of several forest management units remains a major challenge for long-term planning, administration, and monitoring work. The real status of these forest types both in socio-economic and geographic context is still unknown to the forest managers of the country. Hence, development of the geospatial database in a participatory approach are crucial for effective policies and planning, prioritizing interventions, valuation of forest resources and implementation of sustainable forest management. GIS is one of the promising and vibrant technology for planning, monitoring, and mapping of forest resources and its inventory. This paper aims to develop a community-based GIS approach for identification, digitization, and updating the database of several forest management regime of Nepal. Cadastral vector data, GPS data collected from the field, existing analog map and google earth imagery with expert knowledge and field verification was used for identification of different forest management regime of the district. Analog map prepared from Compass survey and google earth imagery was the prime source of data for digitization of the forest area. The grid sheet of the cadastral layer was used to find out the location and verification of the existing analog map. Geo-referencing in the ArcGIS software was mainly applied for co-registering the ground control points and delineation of the forest boundary. Field verification was carried out only for the unit which has more or less than 10% of the original forest area. This study introduced an integrated approach for delineation of several forest management regime by combining the community expert knowledge, GPS data, cadastral data and google earth as a base map. The study found that a geo-referenced cadastral data with the help of few ground control points can be readily used for the preparation of community forest map which was further stored in the geodatabase format of ArcGIS. The novel approach demonstrates a cost effective and efficient approach of digital demarcation of forests, development of geospatial infrastructure and generation of several thematic maps of the forest management regime with community participation. ... View more

Why should GIS matter to Queer people? For the last two decades, cartographers, geographers, and scholars have been exploring the semantics of queer geography, an integrative approach to queer theory and spatial analytics that examines the social relationships of sexuality, place, and space. ... View more

(part of the new Esri Conservation "Inclusive History of Conservation GIS" website project)     Like many commentators & historians I've listened to, I agree that 2020 will be an historic year, probably the most impactful in my 66 year life.  Many of the reasons are bad ones, though some of the most important reasons are good ones, such the widest national protests ever and the beginning of important yet difficult national conversations and institutional changes.   One of these conversations is about racial privilege, an assumed set of comfort and safety features for a dominant culture that they never talk about, but that are obvious and problematic for other cultures.  It's like getting on a plane where everyone is forced to stand there and memorize the entire safety card front to back before they can board, except privileged passengers, who enjoy the unspoken assumption that in the event of a water landing they'll be rescued first.     It's a difficult topic for privileged people to talk about, with plenty of negative shame labels like "guilt" or "snowflake" to keep the topic hidden.  It's also difficult to survive and feel safe in my country if you are not privileged, that's what day after day of peaceful protests are trying to tell us.  There is also an uncomfortable confusion between the idea of talking about one's "privileges" and boasting about oneself, something that people of good conscience try to avoid.   This same confusion has come up in relation to my 31 years at Esri.   Esri has led the GIS world in innovation and a thriving user community for over 40 years.  It has done this using a technical architecture first created and implemented by Scott Morehouse in the 1970's.  To my knowledge, there is no other technical architecture or product line which has been an effective industry standard for so many years.  Microsoft Word comes close, yet it's first release in 1990 was still 8 years after ArcINFO ver 1.  But development genius is only part of the story. There are many development geniuses in tech, what made Esri unique was a different kind of corporate culture.  The norm in tech culture is inspired leaders who express a vision for the future and work to motivate everyone to achieve that vision.  I once heard Jack Dangermond say that this was a perfectly acceptable way to run a company, It just wasn't his way.  What Jack told me next was what made Esri so different.  Jack described his notion of what true leadership was: the higher you rise in an institution, and the more authority you have, the more you must recognize that that authority arises from all of the people around you, at all levels, and the more you must place their needs above yours, dedicate yourself to working for them, in their service, on their behalf.   Jack's model is to be constantly building up the people around him so that they could be effective leaders.  One aspect of this culture was the reluctance by Jack or other Esri leadership to give interviews or talk about themselves.  This was more than simple modesty.  It was a deeply held belief that the real GIS stories weren't about them, they were about all of these other people, especially Esri's users, and the hard work they all did, the obstacles they overcame.  This tradition thrives even now as an important part of the annual conference plenary, where the story of GIS is told through a dozen or so slides of user stories.  By comparison, In 31 years of user conferences I have yet to see even a single slide about Jack Dangermond or any of the other Esri leaders.  Interviews began to be tolerated about 10 years ago in part because at a certain point, Esri's users themselves began to ask for them. Jack's concept of leadership also affected my ideas about starting a new international nonprofit devoted to serving the conservation user community.   In my case the decision was to never serve on the board of directors, but instead work within the committees, helping them to succeed and to help new leaders to emerge.  This was a complex task even for the most selfless of workers, which I was not.  My success in this "leading from underneath" has ranged from decent to at times awful.  Still, the Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) has survived and grown for over 30 years, despite being 100% volunteer run. My greatest personal failure in all those years was my inability to include tribal & First Nations people in this Society.  My initial proposals & charters talked equally about supporting First Nations communities with conservation groups.  In my grant-making work at Esri  it was no problem to make the first grants of GIS technology to many hundreds of tribal organizations in the 90's, helping them begin on the road to GIS capability.  But I was never able to match that success when it came to the people and professionals who would want to be part of the Society.  That was a  lesson in racial privilege, hidden things about me that affected my relationships with communities of color, and that made it impossible for me to create a safe and welcoming societal environment for them. As noble as the goals of modesty & leading from behind may be at first sight, they are also outwardly similar to the same silence that keeps racial privilege hidden.  The motives are different to be sure, but the outward appearance is the same. I had much to learn about this.   The breakthrough began in 2018 when Janice Thompson, the head of GIS for Wilderness Society, began a new initiative within SCGIS called "Mapping for Advocacy".  Wilderness Society is like the Sierra Club in it's commitment to diversity, so for Janice the word "Advocacy" was as much about social justice as it was about conservation. Together with Sandra Coveny, a GIS consultant specializing in tribal resilience planning, the SCGIS Tribal & First Nations program began that same year, with invited speakers from several US tribal organizations.  I was honored to be part of that first panel. What I learned then was that there is a longstanding tradition among tribal & First Nations people that any gathering must begin with heartfelt introductions.  These are not typical western introductions of name & employer or job.  Instead, each person must tell who your ancestral people were, what landscape they are from and how you honor & represent them today.  As was explained to me, before anyone can understand the words you are about to say, they need to first understand who you are as a human being.   It was the first time I got to have a glimpse of what a world might look like where people of many cultures had empathy and understanding for one another.   I get it now why this is such an important tradition for helping a gathering of people feel respected and heard, no matter what their origins and life experiences may have been.   The fact that this cultural shift was finally beginning to happen in a Society devoted to the tools and practices of GIS made it all the more significant.  In the same way that GIS was able to change natural history from a narrative tradition into a quantitative, predictive ecological science, my hope is that GIS can also help communities of every kind work together to identify bias and privilege wherever it exists and support one another in innovative & sustainable solutions.  Towards that end, I hope to return with additional columns & essays in the coming weeks.  First however, is my introduction as I was taught to do it:   My name is Charles Convis. I am the 6th person of that name. I am responsible to my ancestors and I have studied my family genealogy since childhood. My ancestors were farmers, laborers & warriors in Europe until the late 1500's. Most of them came to America in the early 1600's, many were farmers and leaders in the Presbyterian church.  Others were leaders against injustice, creating the first written American anti-slavery protest in 1688, and fighting alongside Black Marines in the Pacific in WWII. I honor their values and try to live up to their traditions of service and justice. I now live near the mountains called Nilengli near the place called Yukaipat by the Yuhaviatam (Serrano) people, who were the first stewards of what is also called the Inland Empire of California.   My passion for conservation and my sense of self began as a child in another place, the High Sierra, first home of the Miwok & Yokuts.  This always was and still is the landscape I am in when I dream, and the place of my stewardship.   I am not neuro-typical, and this may be why I am better with machines and computers than I am with people.  I am fond of GIS and believe it offers great hope for humanity.  I am fond of photography, as it helps me to express my vision of how remarkable and beautiful are the many different people I see, even if I am afraid or unable to speak the words.  I am cisgender and a member of my country's dominant culture.   I am privileged by the society I live in, and I am just barely beginning to understand how to express myself in words that will make it safe for people different from me to hear what is in my heart and not what is in my skin.   (My deepest gratitude to my reviewers & advisors. Marsha Small (Tsistsistah (Northern Cheyenne)) advised against my many mentions of the words "white" and "black", saying that even naming skin colors reinforces colonialist divisions and barriers between people. Marsha also taught me how to properly introduce myself to others.  Ashley Du, head of the Esri ECOS Environmental initiative, helped me with editing and introduced me to the concept "intersectional environmentalism".  Sandra Coveny, tribal resilience consultant, encouraged the idea of an essay on this topic for conservation GIS readers.) xconservationhistory ... View more