Map your family
In this storytelling activity we will work with Joseph Erb to make connections between our personal stories and the places which are the locations of important events that shaped our worldviews. Joseph will explain the 5 beats framework for Indigenous storytelling and how it grounds our stories in the landscape and our cultures, focusing on the larger setting in which the story occurs. We will pay attention to these connections as we create a Google Earth Web map to help us tell the multigenerational story of our families and how those stories inform the way each of us approaches science.
The prompts below are to help you consider what to include in your story, but you do not need to address all of them. As you construct your map, pay attention to the way in which you view the landscape and how you move through and between places. Think about walking the land while telling your story, with each part of the story being told in a different location.
REMEMBER: do not add any personal information (home addresses, etc.) to a map or project that will be shared publicly.
Prompts for Storytelling Map
What factors go into shaping an individual worldview?
First is family and local culture
Where do your ancestors come from, i.e. what country or part of the world?
Where were your grandparents born (all four of them)?
Where were your parents born? (if this is different from where grandparents were born, examine why)
Where were you and your siblings born?
What place in the world do you identify with in terms of identity?
Without posting any addresses or personal information, map the city or town where you now live. Where are your family and friends? Who are you staying in touch with physically or virtually during the pandemic?
Are you able to stay connected to the place in the world you identify with in terms of identity? Is this a source of strength for you, joy, or sorrow?
What are the nonhuman influences in your life?
What is your favorite place in the world? Are you able to stay connected to this place, either physically, in your imagination, or virtually?
Where is your favorite tree, body of water, place to relax, etc.? Is this something that you are currently able to think about? Do you feel connected even when you are unable to physically visit it?
Where was your favorite place to play (or hide) when you were 5 years old? 10 years old? 15? Today? Are any of these places a source of comfort in the current situation?
Who were the most important animals in your life? Are there currently any animals in your life? Where are they? Are they a source of companionship or comfort?
Spiritual Elements and beliefs help shape your thinking
Where are the spots that are sacred to your beliefs located? Are these places you can currently visit? Do you think about them?
Where are your personal sacred places? Are you able to stay connected? Are they a source of comfort?
How has the pandemic changed the way you relate to nature and your special places?
Are you able to go outside and experience the natural world? If so, where do you go? Is experiencing nature important right now?
How have your feelings about your place of residence changed since the start of the pandemic? Do you feel more connected to it, or less?
Where do you wish to go most once you can travel? Why?
Think about how you feel about "place" when your connection is virtual; do you feel like you are actually there when you are "visiting" virtually? If you are prevented from physically visiting the places that are most important to you does this diminish your emotional or spiritual connections?
Create Your Map
Before we begin building our map we will learn how to find the view that we want and set it so that we automatically move to the angle, height, and view type you want. This is important for the way we tell our story, because we want to immerse our audience in the experience of visiting our important places.
Go to the search box and type in the name of a place that is very important to you. Use the navigation tools and Pegman/Street view to explore your place. When you build your map you will pay attention to the view for each location.
We will share our screens and tell our fellow students about our special places.
Sign in/sign up for Google Account
We will now use the prompts below to build our storytelling map using Google earth Web.
The advantages of using Google Earth Web for Storytelling are:
Maps are in 3D with rich, immersive topography and the angle and direction of view can be controlled
The text, photos and videos are nicely formatted and easy to show in presentations
You can use HTML coding to add customizations to your information panels
Maps can be shared on the web
Tools
Map Icons
My Maps gallery of ethnographic mapping
Indigenous Mapping Icons (northern hemisphere & Amazon)
Indigenous Mapping Icons (Australia)
Create Your Story
Today's guest speaker is Joseph Erb, MFA, Assistant Professor of Digital Storytelling, University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a computer animator, film producer, educator, language technologist and artist enrolled in the Cherokee Nation. He earned his MFA degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Erb created the first Cherokee animation in the Cherokee language, “The Beginning They Told”. He created the first computer-animated film and the first planetarium show in a Native American language, and has led major projects—working closely with technicians and executives at Apple and later Google, Facebook and Microsoft—to embed the Cherokee syllabary on the iPhone, iPad, and social media sites as well as Gmail and the search engine Google. He liases regularly with programmers, systems engineers and executives at these companies, as well as a wide range of other organizations including tribal nations, the National Park Service, and the Unicode Consortium.
Click here to learn more about his work as a storyteller and an animator
For this activity, each participant will use the Jamboard to develop a story using the 5 beats method of Indigenous storytelling. Make sure that your story is based on places so that we can use it in our next class where we will map our stories using Google Earth Web.
Indigenous Storytelling* has been characterized as having 5 beats:
Beat one: Set up the theme or the journey you are going on, and what land and cultural framework you will use in the story
Beat two: Introduce the main character(s) or community
Beat three: The journey/crisis of the main character(s) or community
Beat four: The resolution of the crisis of the main character(s) or community
Beat five: The message and resolution of the theme where the character and land are once again in balance with one another
*Clague, Pauline. "The five beats of Indigenous Storytelling." Lumina: Australian Journal of Screen Arts and Business 11 (2013). You can read the article and a discussion CLICK HERE
JosephNWVW2022compressed.mp4This is the Zoom recording of Joseph Erb's presentation from 2022
Storytelling Activity
Use the prompts below as examples of things you can include in your story. Begin to organize the story of your family's relationship to land using the 5 beats method as illustrated by Joseph Erb's Cherokee Water Story. You will have access to one of the Jamboards which will help you to organize your thoughts, and then you will work in small groups in breakout rooms to polish your stories.
DO NOT put anything personal like home addresses on the Jamboard or your map because these will be public.
You will need to sign into a Google Account in order to add photos to the Jamboard. If you don't have a Google account you can sign up here
Assigned Reading
5-beats-2.pdf