An adult education study of participatory community mapping for Indigenous knowledge production

This dissertation explores the notion of participatory community mapping (PCM) for Indigenous knowledge production. Three major questions were posed in the study. First, how can PCM foster Indigenous knowledge production and documentation? Second, how can PCM be used to include local voice and input in mapping projects, and third, how can adult educators in their cultural work apply PCM with communities? Though the research took a slightly different direction in execution, the approach of the PCM tool will still provide useful possibilities in future studies.;The background of the work focuses on Indigenous knowledge, the history of mapmaking, and popular education to arrive at new ways of looking at the mapmaking enterprise. Data were collected over a period of years through work, participation and direct study with members of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC) community located on the LCO Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Because of this intimacy with the college and its members, ethnographic methods were chosen, along with the potential of invoking participatory approaches.;After many discussions with participants, along with a research test bed, the process in practice became an individual one versus the participatory opportunity originally entertained. The procedure followed the same structure outlined in the methodology but was one of a personal nature instead of community. Participants created maps of their lifeworlds using materials of their own choosing. These richly detailed map products were then used during the subsequent interviews for thick description.;The generative themes that emerged from the study were land, subsistence, water, on/off reservation, family, community, language, learning, and ways of knowing. These themes were then highlighted by important stories and concepts that were contained in the interviews. The descriptions and maps provided first-hand visual and oral documentation of Indigenous knowledge.;A mapmaking best practices outline was also created based upon participant suggestions and critique. This piece and the computer maps created during the project highlight how cultural knowledge and voice can be injected into geomatics. Finally, the discussion of cultural applications, for the adult education classroom and beyond, show that using mapmaking in research and teaching can lead to newfound possibilities and approaches that directly reflect learners' lived experience.