Design With The Land.
Honor Its Story.
Design with the Land.
Honor its Story.
Stewardship
& Sovereignty
LANDFRAME recognizes the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples - past, present, and future - who have cared for these lands and waters since time immemorial. Honoring this stewardship is central to LANDFRAME’s mission to protect natural resources, cultural heritage, and landscapes for future generations.
Design with Acknowledgement
LANDFRAME supports environments shaped by acknowledgment, healing, and transformation, recognizing the land, its history, and the Indigenous communities connected to it today.
Land carries meaning and exists within systems of power and resources, often experienced differently by Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Genuine acknowledgment goes beyond naming. It asks us to confront the policies and practices of colonization that separated people from land.
LANDFRAME sparks remembrance of this history and reveals deeper insight through site analysis, guiding more informed design.
Data with Depth
The platform houses cultural and environmental information that spans hundreds of years and is tied to specific sites.​
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This includes:
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Historic tribal territories and languages
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Treaties and current tribal lands
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Traditional knowledge, including place names, regional materials, and building types
These datasets support creating site-specific land acknowledgment statements and data visualization scripts, which are tools that translate complex information into clear, visual stories such as patterns or diagrams, enabling early design exploration.
Respecting Data
Sovereignty
The data within LANDFRAME is considered living and remains sovereign to the communities from which it originates.​
LANDFRAME recognizes the long history of land oppression and data colonialism. The platform is committed to advancing data sovereignty by supporting Indigenous control over spatial knowledge and how that knowledge is shared, interpreted, and used.
LANDFRAME provides access to public datasets but does not replace Indigenous community engagement or consultation. It excludes culturally sensitive or proprietary content and is designed to guide early-stage research and design with care. The PILAT Culture and Ethics Committee reviews any questions about data.
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Blending
Knowledge
Systems
LANDFRAME empowers AEC professionals to incorporate Western and Indigenous knowledge systems into design and acknowledgment practices. Western scientific and environmental data are presented alongside non-Western knowledge sources that describe the whole identity of a site.
A Path Toward
Reconciliation
LANDFRAME aims to bring about reconciliation with the past, to provide creative solutions for the present, and to ignite innovative visions of the future in the built and natural environment. It promotes tribal sovereignty, encourages the development of tribal partnerships, and advocates for Indigenous participation in planning and design where appropriate.
Disclaimer
This disclaimer outlines the use of our mapping tool, which integrates data from multiple sources.
Scope of the Data
The data presented is not comprehensive of Indigenous territories, historic regional materials, or traditional knowledge, and does not denote legal boundaries of territories. The selected spatial knowledge and information are curated to assist in site research and to inspire the beginning stages of designing built projects and landscape to support sustainable principles of Indigeneity and current local communities.
Data Sources & Limitations
These datasets have been gathered and developed from publicly available Western and non-Western sources. Although efforts have been made to ensure that the data is accurate and reliable, errors and variable conditions stemming from primary documents and/or their translation into digital records exist.
Users must be aware of these conditions and bear responsibility for the appropriate use of the information. This includes awareness of possible issues with:
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Errors, scale, resolution, and positional accuracy
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Development methodology, time period, and environmental conditions
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Other factors specific to each dataset
Understanding Occupation & Belonging
Original land occupation is complex because of multiple, contested histories of settlement, resettlement, and recognition. Many places are now home to communities that have resided there from time immemorial, as well as those who have relocated from elsewhere. The goal of acknowledgment is to recognize Indigenous communal relationships to territory as a way to strengthen contemporary communities, not to cause further division between individuals or groups.
Transparency & Access
The datasets presented here include publicly available information, with no intentional selection or exclusion. While user journeys have been created to guide exploration, users have full access to all datasets, ensuring transparency and a comprehensive understanding of the information provided.
Terms of Use
By using this tool, the user agrees to the following terms and conditions:
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No warranty is made by Page, now Stantec, The Page Foundation, or PILAT Partners for the use of the data for purposes not intended by them.
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The dataset may contain errors.
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The dataset has no impact on the legal status of the land depicted herein and no impact on land ownership.
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The dataset is prepared for illustrative and reference purposes only. It is not intended for and should not be used for legal, survey, engineering, or navigation purposes.