We will begin by exploring examples of Google My Maps used for Indigenous Mapping. My Maps are easy, fast ways to collaboratively build maps. They are lightweight 2D maps that can easily be embedded in a website or viewed in Google Maps on a mobile device. The map file KML/KMZ can be exported from a My Maps and imported into more sophisticated mapping platforms such as Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Web, ESRI ArcGIS and most digital platforms.

Next we will build a My Maps as a group using a Google Form. We have embedded the Google Form into this website so you can easily fill it out and submit it, which is a method that lends itself well to gathering geospatial information from the public. The Form has been linked to a Google Sheet, and this response sheet will then be imported into the My Maps to build a layer. We have to manually import the Sheet into the map so the map will be a snapshot in time; we have to re-import the sheet if we want to add sites that are entered into the form at a later time. The My Maps created from the spreadsheet is embedded in this Google Site below.

Our final activity will be to build a Google My Maps in our own Google Drive. We will sign into Google Drive, create a project folder to hold all of our different materials (for example, the Form, Sheet, and My Maps for the second activity are all in the same Google Drive Folder), and share the folder with colleagues, Then we will explore different ways to add content to our My Maps.

Please fill out the form below. Do not enter any private information since the responses will be public. Make sure you click Submit. You can see your answers in the Google Sheet embedded below. We will use the response spreadsheet to create a My Maps.

Below is the Google My Maps that was created by importing the response Sheet linked to the Form. The My Maps was embedded in this Google Site.