Using a Digital Twin to Map Heritage for Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation
Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) is the Native Title Representative body for the Yamatji and Pilbara regions of Western Australia. YMAC is responsible for providing a range of professional services to groups of Traditional Owners of the Pilbara, Midwest and Gascoyne. One of those services is heritage mapping. With the need for heritage mapping rapidly increasing in Western Australia, YMAC contracted Winayma to help meet the needs of the Aboriginal communities they represent.
As part of YMACs role, they will put heritage surveys together to gain an understanding of what areas of land need to be protected with physical boundaries. The initial stages of this process requires the collaboration of a number of stakeholders including the Traditional Owners, their representative body corporate, a heritage consultant and YMAC staff. The stakeholders take guidance from the Traditional Owners to determine what parts of the land need to be protected, then a border can be defined and an exclusion zone is set. With multiple stakeholders involved in each consultation, and the demand for heritage surveys increasing—YMAC’s heritage manager recognised that there was a need to make the consultation process more streamlined.
The Solution
When it comes to heritage, you can’t compromise on accuracy, nor can you leave people behind. Winyama provided a digital mapping solution that displayed a 3D digital twin of the landscape. What is unique about this way of completing the heritage survey, is the digitalisation and accuracy that ensures the Winyama team can take all the information and distil it down to a single or series of boundaries that the company can observe and follow.
The Benefits
Stakeholders can gain context that was never possible with paper maps because Country is displayed how it looks in real life. This provides a foundation for transparent discussions to take place.
The accuracy you can have with a digitised map far exceeds that of a 2D paper map which can lead to miscommunications.
Want to learn more about how digital twins are transforming heritage mapping? Read the full article to see how YMAC and Winyama are using this technology to protect Indigenous lands.
Ready to explore how our digital mapping solutions can support your project? Contact us today to learn more and discuss how we can help you achieve your mapping goals.