Next Steps

With the website and story map now public, and several of the steps identified at the close of the pilot completed, our focus turns to mobilizing the outcomes of this work with the community, and to deepening the knowledge and relationships at its heart.

Mobilizing the work with the community

• Signage at Xetthecum (Retreat Cove): Explore the potential for signage at Xetthecum, featuring species names in Hul’q’umi’num’ and English, cultural values, QR codes linking to the story map, and additional pertinent information. This could build on our earlier plans with the Galiano Island Parks and Recreation Society, and would be developed in consultation with Puneluxutth’ knowledge holders and local landholders.

• Sharing the outcomes: Continue to share the story map, BioBlitz results, and other outcomes of this work with the Galiano Island community and beyond—for example through community events, workshops, and educational settings, where teachers and students can directly access biodiversity data as well as stories of place.

• Data Management Plan: Consult with Indigenous community members to finalize the Data Management Plan, ensuring permissions for incorporation of cultural knowledge into the project framework.

Data collection, analysis, and story-mapping

• Transcribe video footage and interviews with Augie Sylvester, and gather data on eelgrass and clam bed restoration and protection, including diverse uses such as hunting, gathering, harvesting, and medicinal purposes. Consider language diversity, repatriation, and the impact of human and marine traffic.

• Supplement database of Hul’q’umi’num’ names for species and other map features based on The Cowichan Dictionary of the Hul’qumin’um’ Dialect of the Coast Salish People.

Resource development and dissemination

• Consult with Whiteswan Environmental regarding opportunities to adapt this framework to serve their visions of mapping ecocultural information and storytelling about culturally significant sites in the Salish Sea.

• Consider developing different versions of the project to promote usefulness and accessibility for different groups.

• Explore the possibility of compiling stories that encompass both traditional and modern knowledge of the area into a book.

• Develop an improved content management system to ensure the protection of intellectual property and respect for the practices and protocols of Indigenous communities.