DD103 Investigating the Social World – Week 17 – What you will be studying this week

The topic is ‘Indigenous lands and territories – mapping the commons’. So, now we are looking
through the eyes of geographers.
The Dongria Kondh revere a mountain that, unfortunately for them, contains much aluminium ore.
A mining company, Vedanta, bought this ‘no-man’s land’ from the Indian regional government and
planned to remove the top of the sacred mountain. The Dongria Kondh mounted a campaign to save
it, supported by NGOs and others. Eventually, the Indian Supreme Court ruled mining to be unlawful.
This case raises issues of state actions and also of how alliances of parties can influence outcomes.
There’s a really fascinating video of the Dongria Kondh – narrated by Joanna Lumley!
The Awa are a small group of people who live in woodland in a landscape stripped bare by illegal
loggers and settlers. Despite legal protection for their reserve, the Awa face threats to their lifestyles
and livelihoods and even to their lives. The role of government is discussed in setting up the reserve
and in using force to relocate the settlers to other parts of the Amazon. The role of the Awa
themselves, and media coverage is also examined. The BBC produced a documentary on the issue
which is available to watch on the module website.
The Surui are also facing threats to their homeland through external exploitation of forest resources.
In contrast to the Awa, the Surui turned to a private business to help them to protect what they
have by using counter-mapping techniques to identify what they consider valuable in their lands
from environmental, cultural, historical and social perspectives. Building on this, you’re invited to
have a go at counter-mapping using OpenStreetMap, an online open-source street mapping wiki
where you can add ‘cultural’ information to the map of your home area. Wikid!
The skills work this week in online Section 7 gives you the chance to practice using the PROMPT
criteria (introduced in week 13) in relation to academic papers.

Some highlights of the week's content

Online 2 The story of a sacred mountain
4 The Amazon rainforest: a home for
indigenous groups
6 Cybercartography and digital
mapping
The Dongria Kondh versus Vedanta
The Awa versus the loggers and settlers
An opportunity to do some counter-mapping
using OpenStreetMap

Book 2 Chapter 5 Indigenous lands and territories: mapping the

commons

Sample references
Bhagwat, S., Jones, N. and Mohan, G. (2015) ‘Indigenous lands and territories: mapping the
commons’, in Drake, D., Morris, A., Shipman, A. and Wheeler, K. (eds) Investigating the Social World
2, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University ([year of module start]) ‘Activity 17.4’ Using counter-mapping to create the
Surui cultural map, DD103 Investigating the social world [Online]. Available at [url], (Accessed
[date]).