The Community Mapping Workshop hosted by e4c and artist/muralist Pedro Rodriguez was held at the Edmonton Intercultural Centre’s library downstairs at the McCauley School Building on December 16. It was attended by a variety of people who work at or associate with the Multicultural Health Brokers Coop, as well as some members of the McCauley community.

What is interesting is how Pedro asked people to trace their personal geography and frequency of movement over the course of a week. Then participants were asked to layer words and images from those maps using the narrative of their interactions with the areas and people onto acetate sheets. People came together to create overhead, projected, short animations using those sheets. Their narration included their newfound neighbour’s stories intertwined with their own and overlapping with the neighbourhood of McCauley. Perspectives including new Canadians, Indigenous, and Settler descendants were all included, and told a very in-depth narrative. Pedro recorded all the presentations, and kept the drawings and sheets. We expect to work more often with Pedro, and to have a design, with elements of all the community mapping workshops from the past six months, created by him which truly reflects the people of McCauley.

Taro is the Community Development Officer with E4C.