#WhyIMap: Using experience to benefit others
Marty, can you tell me a bit about your background and how you started working in heritage mapping?
I studied Town Planning and Architecture at Queen’s University in Belfast, they had a few modules in GIS and mapping which I was really into. After graduation I did generic town planning work for half a year for the local council, but I was always poring over the associated maps and plans that were part of the planning applications—I liked trying to piece together the story of how these would look on a part of the country, and how they would impact what was already there.
One day I got tapped on the shoulder by the boss there and he said, ‘Hey Marty you seem pretty good on a computer and it looks like you like maps.’ He took me into a room out the back with three other computer nerds and said, ‘this is Marty, he’s our new GIS guy, train him up.’ And that was pretty much it, I’ve been doing GIS ever since. I moved to Australia in 2010 after back-packing and I never left.
What a journey! And how did you first get to be involved with the Indigenous Mapping Workshop?
I started working for Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) under Will Davis in the GIS team. I’d only been there a few months and he told me that there was an event coming up soon called the ‘Indigenous Mapping Workshop’, that would be a really great opportunity for me to be involved in given the space we’re working in, in Native Title. That was the 2019 workshop.
Since you’ve joined the team at Winyama, can you tell me how your involvement with IMW changed?
This year I joined Winyama as a Senior GIS Consultant. Since beginning at Winyama, I’ve been fortunate to work closely alongside the IMW team and now I’m writing an IMWauOD course on using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Collector for remote data collection.
Working in heritage mapping, I get to learn so much about the Indigenous culture and gain a better appreciation and understanding that I didn’t have before. I’m from Ireland originally and before spending time in Australia, I didn’t know much about the history of this country—so I’m learning a lot. I’m learning and appreciating not just about Australian Indigenous culture but all of the individual cultures within the Indigenous and Islander populations.
What was the motivation behind writing this course for our online learners?
A lot of the ranger groups use Fulcrum for data collection and it’s a phenomenal tool. It’s used worldwide, but the other tool that can be used for data collection is Esri. At IMW we have Esri licenses so I thought I would focus on this. Esri Collector is an app that you can download for your phone and you can use it for collecting data in the bush and to record video footage too. It’ll be really handy for ranger groups and people looking after Country or for people who can’t afford the cost of Fulcrum.
My inspiration for this course came from the poor (or not very clearly written) documentation about how to get data and files from your computer onto your phone or laptop. When you want to set up your data collection app, the language used in the ‘how-to's' that I’ve seen isn’t very clear or detailed, and you need that detail to be able to create an effective app; so I thought I would write a short course on it. I wanted to help people that want to do this work more efficiently.
It all started when I was working in my last role at YMAC; I noticed the process of collecting data was ineffective - a lot of field staff in the organisation were going out and complaining about having to carry hardcopy notepads, GPS’s and a mobile phone to record video or photographs. Then their notes would get messed up or they would lose points on the GPS. There was lots of room for error and it just seemed really unnecessarily complex. So I said, ‘hey guys why don’t I write down this process, make the app, and put it on your phone for you? Then you can collect everything with one device.’
It worked really well and progressed to being the standard thing to do. The field guys would come to the GIS team, tell us where they were heading and what they wanted to collect, and we’d make the app for them so they could go and collect the data they needed.
Do you have any advice for people working in Native Title or heritage mapping who are looking to learn more GIS?
The IMW Australia - On Demand learning portal is a wonderful tool because it can be accessed anytime and there’s a whole array of courses available for people’s different needs and skill levels. There’s some other great open-source assets available elsewhere too.
If you go onto YouTube and search for GIS there are so many people giving away free information and knowledge on how to use mapping and spatial technology for telling stories —there’s so much cool stuff that can be done with using this technology. Google Earth Pro is another great and beneficial tool if you’re working in Native Title and want a free option. It’s easy to download and install, easy to use too. It’s a fully functional 3D GIS and it’s super high quality.
I’d also recommend QGIS. It’s a free, open-source GIS that has so much power under the hood, and it’s customisable with a massive library of plug-ins.
Do you want to begin your journey with IMW Australia - On Demand? Find out how you can get involved here.
Follow us on socials to find out as soon as this course is released.