Best practices for the field: Tips for conducting interviews for heritage mapping
Conducting interviews is an integral part of heritage mapping and involves asking questions that locate sites of cultural significance.
Interviewers must ensure they have a standard set of questions that capture the who, what, where and when details from their interviewees, while also providing flexibility for knowledge-holders to comfortably tell their own stories.
We have compiled some of our tips and a best practice guide for the field to help get you started.
Considerations for the field
Before conducting your interview, consider what mapping tools you will be using and how you can best prepare this tool.
For example, if you want to map your project on Google Earth, navigate to your area of interest and look at the imagery available. Inspect the age and quality of the imagery, as well as checking the historical database for additional resources.
Review the questions you intend to ask your knowledge holder and identify any questions about specific places or surrounding lands. This will help you define locations and gather the appropriate data and imagery you’ll need prior to your interview.
Consider what additional data and maps could be useful in the field. These may include:
Base data such as protected area boundaries, Indigenous territories, rivers and other natural features
Past studies such as existing cultural maps or traditional place names
Industry development data such as proposed mining footprints, pipelines, roads or hydro developments
Tracks and waypoints previously recorded with a GPS device
Observations about your lands recorded using Open Data Kit
If you do not have access to these maps, some not-for-profit partners or government agencies may be able to share these maps with you.
The process
Conducting interviews requires two interviewers - one to ask the questions, and one to operate the recording equipment.
The interviewer guides the knowledge holder to address the fundamental who, where, what and when questions:
‘Who’ refers to any biographical information
‘Where’ should be carefully documented on your choice of mapping software
‘What’ refers to the cultural activities undertaken, species that are harvested and stories that are connected to that place
‘When’ refers to the timeframe that the knowledge-holder used the site, what seasons the site is used, and how often the site is used.
It is important to transcribe the interview and make duplicate copies for safe keeping. It is also important to provide a copy to the knowledge-holder so they can review what has been recorded and provide clarification if necessary.
Post-interview analysis and presentation
After you have conducted your interview, make copies of your recordings as well as your transcripts. Make notes about any points that need clarification, any sites that need to be visited and any sites that are urgently threatened.
Review your site data and organise your interview data into folders or layers depending on the mapping tools you are using. An interpretive report should accompany your project to provide context, discuss your methodology and identify any gaps or significance in information.
Did you know that Winyama specialises in Aboriginal Cultural and Heritage Mapping? If you need to help with a cultural or heritage mapping project you’re working on, we’d love to hear from you!