Native Land roadmap update

By Victor Temprano on Sunday, August 26th, 2018 in Community, Community & Blog, Organization | 6 Comments

Hello everyone!

It’s been a few months, and a hot summer, since I posted the roadmap. We’ve made a lot of progress since then and a lot has happened. There’s still a very long way to go, but I’m definitely more confident and feeling like things are moving.

Here’s a quick list of some things we’ve achieved:

• Hiring a research assistant who is regularly going through territories, languages, and treaties as fixes come in, and helping to add new territories
• Archiving of past emails is well underway and should be finished within a month or two
• Moved to Mapbox and improved the overall feel and experience of the site
• Added “nation pages” so that we can add more sources and information for each area that we add to the map
• Hired a Volunteer Coordinator so that we can begin working on numerous longer-term projects with volunteers
• Set up a Slack chat channel for interested people who want to contribute or connect
• Found two confirmed Board of Directors’ members
• Participated in the IMW 2018 Conference
• Conducted a number of media interviews and articles

Things haven’t gone exactly as planned — my idea of hiring regional coordinators turned out to be too complex at this point, so having one research assistant is proving more useful right now. One day, when I can adequately staff and fund things, having numerous research assistants who can collaborate with each other and with volunteers will be really amazing.

Here are a few things that are top of the list for the next few months:

• Formally registering Native Land as a not-for-profit (my instinct is to do this immediately, but because it requires a board of directors, it is best to take the time to understand exactly what is being set up, and to do it properly)
• Creating Education Guides for teachers to use when using the site
• Find another 1-2 Board Members before formally announcing the Board
• Continue updating technologies to make it easier for volunteers to contribute to the project
• Begin to hunt down potential sources of longer-term funding
• Expanding the scope of Native Land to South America and elsewhere

I’m certainly in Native Land for the long haul — to me, this will hopefully be an organization that can sponsor students, hold conferences and meetings, and provide useful materials to teachers, users, and Indigenous people around the world.

Slow, steady progress will win the day in the long run. As well as the immense support from so many people around the world. It really helps that so many people are willing to contribute and lend their thoughts, questions, and suggestions to the project.

Thank you all very much, and keep tuned for more updates in the months and years to come!

• Victor Temprano