How Do You Map the Culture of a Community?

With Cultural Mapping, native people create their own maps of their land using their own language and history. The University Libraries’ Indigenous Nations Library Program will explore this issue as it hosts two events at Zimmerman Library Feb. 21 on cultural mapping. This is sometimes used as a teaching device for community members so they better understand the history and significance of culturally important plDavid Brookshire.

Jim Enote from Zuni Pueblo and Taft Blackhorse, from the Navajo Nation will discuss the idea of cultural mapping at a brown bag lunch in the Herzstein Reading Room on the second floor of Zimmerman Library from noon to 1 p.m.

They will also conduct a panel discussion from 3 – 5 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman. Enote and Blackhorse will examine the importance of cultural mapping for indigenous communities, looking at the Navajo Nation and Pueblo of Zuni as examples. They will also discuss ways the tribes decide what to include, what roles traditional people, elders and professionals play, who leads these efforts and what the impact of cultural mapping is to a community.

The event is free and the public is welcome. Refreshments will be served at the panel discussion.

Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu