Members of ELOKA (Exchange for Local Observations & Knowledge of the Arctic) recently helped to launch a website to preserve maps and other indigenous knowledge from the Bering Sea Elders group in Alaska. The group recently published a book The Northern Bering Sea: Our Way of Life in hardcopy, but ELOKA was able to ensure this history and knowledge is preserved for future generations.
"The ELOKA team worked closely with Bering Sea Elders Group personnel to transfer the publication into an interactive website, where viewers easily move between different sections much like flipping through a book. Graphic themes mirrored the elegance of the publication. And most importantly the maps—that overlay fishing and hunting areas with ecologically important areas—were preserved."
Read the full story in the NSIDC Monthly Highlights Newsletter.
ELOKA is a project hosted at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and is also an affiliated program with CNAIS.
Nick Pavilla of Atmautluak and Henry Parks of Nunapitchuk participate in a map review session for the Bering Sea Elders Group in Bethel, Alaska. Photo credit: Muriel Morse