Collaborative Mapping: using place-based storytelling to connect with our Great Lakes

Join Paul Baines (founder of the Great Lakes Commons Map) to see and hear how we can use maps, digital tools, and storytelling to shift into a new possibility for water stewardship. Open source technologies, collaborative practices, and a commons ethic are the connecting elements of this work and it's time for this project to be shared and shaped by more people - like you.

Going far back enough in history, the impossible has already happened. The Great Lakes are the earth's largest surface fresh water body and are now toxic, invaded, dying, and dropping. The amount of water in this watershed is so massive, it takes 350 years for water to fully flow through it's west-to-east basin (Lake Superior to the St. Lawrence Seaway). On top of new and increasing impacts, most of the existing damage has happened in just 2 generations.

Is it possible to change this new norm? Are the existing values, policies, and actions part of the solution or part of the problem? A paradigm shift is needed, but how do we name and built it? Maps tell stories and stories give our lives meaning and direction. So how do we transform the maps?

The Great Lakes Commons Map was inspired by the work of many other water warriors who are re-imagining and re-indigenizing our relationship with the Great Lakes. Join us at the Academy for an overview of this project and a collaborative and curious discussion.