Places of the Heart: Mapping Flagstaff’s Sacred Places
By Connie Taylor
Whether it’s the Inner Basin, a forest service road beyond Lake Mary with a wealth of wildlife, a remote canyon that guards the weathered remains of a ranch, a trail that opens onto a spectacular view of Sedona’s red rocks, a quiet spot on a favorite urban hike, or a downtown bench, everyone who lives in or loves Flagstaff has one - that special place that makes the heart soar and restores the soul. For each person it is different and sacred for private reasons.
How do you experience this place we call Flagstaff? Is it a place with friendly cafes, a great university, co-op gardens, multi-use neighborhoods and bike and pedestrian friendly streets? Do you have the opportunity to hike on well-maintained urban trails, ski on dry powder, sit and enjoy the view of spectacular canyons and explore ruins of those who lived here many years ago? Do you love your easy, walking commute to work, the familiar atmosphere at your neighborhood grocery store or the fact that you can keep a horse in your back yard?
When you notice and list the good things Flagstaff can be proud of, you are making your own community map. Collectively, we can celebrate our place by affirming what makes it special to us. It is time to list the good things about home - to "re-inhabit" it with a new outlook - instead of only pointing out what is bad or needs to be changed.
The "Places of the Heart" project gives us the opportunity to create our own map, or to map ourselves, by submitting an entry that describes our special place. These sacred places will be included in the "Places of the Heart" exhibit and will be plotted on the community map.
Everyone is encouraged to submit his or her visual art and creative writing entry that describes their place of the heart. Entries will be accepted until March 31st. After all entries have been collected, there will be an exhibit opening, lecture, presentations, and the unveiling of the "Places of the Heart Community Map" at the Coconino Center for the Arts on April 20. For entry guidelines, or for an entry form, visit the Web site at www2.nau.edu/community/poth.htm, e-mail community.culture@nau.edu, or call 523-0494.
In addition to the visual art and creative writing entries, anyone can go to the Web site and submit a short, text-only name and description of their Place of the Heart for inclusion in the community map.
In order to help Flagstaff become better acquainted with community mapping, there will be a lecture by Doug Aberley, author of "Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment," on Mon. Feb.25 at Cline Library Auditorium. Aberley will introduce this concept as a way of community transformation and as a visual language.
"The maps become a source of collective knowledge about a place - a level of knowledge no single individual, corporation, or government agency is ever likely to match," Aberley explains. "This leads to empowerment and to decisions about growth and development, which better help us to achieve the two key goals most of us share: social justice and ecological sustainability."
At the exhibit opening, author and ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan will speak to the audience on the importance of oral transmission of place names and the utility of community participation in drafting vernacular maps, which help conserve the unique natural and cultural resources communities value. Nabhan recently participated in a three-year mapping project in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. The "Lugares del Corazon" community effort strove to connect communities on both sides of the border by evoking their shared sense of place in the Sonoran desert. The project included a variety of children’s activities, mapping exercises and the development of a traveling trunk show of display materials that encouraged involvement of community members of all ages.
Also at the exhibit opening, David Taylor, poet and author of place-based literature, will speak about the boundaries and limitations of place-based writing drawn from his research in bioregionalism, environmental philosophy and the literary history of regionalism in American literature. Gioia Woods, professor of humanities and regional studies at NAU, will explore the relationship between community and place and the historical ways in which Americans and Westerners and Arizonans have expressed and acted upon sacred space. A number of program participants will present their Places of the Heart during this community celebration.
Maps like this are currently being used by communities in a conscious effort to historically and geographically place themselves in a meaningful relationship with the cultural and natural environment. This approach to mapping - using language, art, and oral and written history - will help our community to identify, protect, and continue to create the places we value, our sacred places.
As we stop and identify the sacred places in our community, we will most likely find more common ground than not within diverse groups. At this time in Flagstaff’s growth, there may be no better way to identify what we want to keep as a community - and what we want to grow into - than to map our sacred places.
For more information or for an entry form, visit the Web site at www2.nau.edu/community/poth.htm, e-mail community.culture@nau.edu, or call 523-0494.