enlace | Terrastories.io: an open-source application for mapping indigenous oral histories

Terrastories is an open-source geostorytelling application built to enable indigenous communities to locate and map their own oral history storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning or value to them.

Community members can add places and stories through a user-friendly interface, and make decisions about setting certain stories as private or restricted. The application interface is entirely translatable.

Powered by the Mapbox platform, Terrastories is designed to be entirely offline-compatible, so that remote indigenous communities can access the application entirely without needing internet connectivity.

The Terrastories interface is principally composed of an interactive map and a sidebar with media content. Users can explore the map and click on activated points to see the stories associated with those points. Alternatively, users can interact with the sidebar and click on stories to see the points in the landscape where these narratives took place.

Through an administrative back end, users can also add, edit, and remove stories, or set them as restricted so that they are viewable only with a special graded login. Administrators can design and customize the content of the interactive map entirely, and the interface itself is customizable with a color scheme and design reflecting the aesthetics of the community.