Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 09/99) - So that Yellowknifers may better understand their relationship with the environment, they're being invited to map it out.

Organized by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a mapping day was held last Sunday and another will take place this Saturday -- in Petitot Park during the Festival of the Midnight Sun.

Project consultant Marianne Bromley said the mapping idea worked its way North from British Columbia.

"There are a lot of places on the West Coast where citizens have created maps to show what they value around their homes," she said, "to show their connection to nature -- where the water comes from, where the waste goes, what plants grow -- and people's relationships with these elements."

Bromley said the project's origins were politically motivated.

"People felt they had no voice when the developers came in," she said, "so they felt they had to get in touch with the place and be able to say this is how things work and this is what needs to be maintained."

James Cook, project assistant, described the Yellowknife version as part of a summer-long "experiment" to reveal how locals feel about their town.

"It's about raising awareness of Yellowknife's natural surroundings," he said. "We'll be compiling the individual maps into a display and a major map with different layers of clear film, showing for example where you can listen to birds singing or that this is a favourite spot to just kick back and relax."

The society describes the maps themselves as "any creative portrayal of a natural area -- using drawing, painting, weaving, fabric collage, quilting, photo montage or any combination of techniques."

Wildlife biologist Leslie Wakelyn said she was happy to take part in the mapping exercise Sunday out at Rat Lake and Tin Can Hill.

"It's basically my backyard," she said, "and it's also always changing a bit because of human use."

Wakelyn said she wanted to show the conflict between humans and the environment and some of the resulting, negative effects like churned up earth and strewn garbage in her map.

"I mainly used cut-outs from magazines -- the reason being that I can't draw to save my life," she said, adding, "It had everything from pictures of waterfowl to people on skidoos and dirt bikes."

Bromley said it's no coincidence the talk of awareness and of southern mappers' concerns for the land sounds familiar to Northern ears.

"When you read their principles," she said, "it's almost identical to what Aboriginal people have always believed."

For this reason, Bromley said she's aiming to expand on existing mapping educational packages so that teachers will be able to use in, and out of, the classroom.

"The reason for the school package," she said, "is to integrate the Aboriginal program with mainstream programs like biology and science."