Kunuku mapping

Creative storytelling about places that matter to you

Kunuku [papiamentu]: a field, landscape, or cultivated garden;
from the Taíno word conuco, which has a similar meaning.

Kunuku [Papiamentu]: a field, landscape, or cultivated garden; from the Taíno word conuco, which has a similar meaning.

our story

As members of immigrant families with roots planted across different regions of the world such as Vietnam, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and the United States, the connection between place and story has fascinated us since we were young.

At Kunuku Mapping, we are passionate about imagining new and creative ways to document and visualize stories about places that matter to us. 

We create beautiful interactive and cartographic maps that inspire and educate; partner with communities, organizations, or families to map their own place-based stories; and consult on documenting personal or cultural heritage, or organizing heritage events.

We can work with a wide range of digital storytelling tools to help you tell stories about places, and are directly involved in building a free and open-source geostorytelling tool called Terrastories.

We’d love to help you bring your stories to life! 

Detail from a Map of Curaçao by Gerard Van Keulen, 1779.

WHAT WE DO

Storytelling with INTERACTIVE maps

WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Data-driven web maps and dashboards

Mapping place-based oral histories

Photography and video editing

Print map cartography and design

Offline and online spatial data collection

Community & participatory mapping methodologies

We are also skilled in:

Compiling physical and digital archives

Heritage events organizing

Web design and development

App development

Technology stack

We are “tech-agnostic”  in our approach and can work with a variety of digital tools depending on your needs, but we particularly love working with these.

PORTFOLIO

Terrastories: Matawai Konde

Terrastories built for the Matawai community in Suriname (with the Amazon Conservation Team and Stichting Matawai)

MAPPING ECOSYSTEM RIGHTS

An interactive mapping app, database, and API to help identify where rights of nature legislation is most likely to pass (with Bioneers and the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights)

Echoes of Little Saigon

Collecting and Preserving the Cultural History of the Vietnamese Community in Arlington, Virginia (with Virginia Tech and other partners)

Native Land Digital

Native Land is an app to help map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages

Sarayaku

In Defense of Territory (with the Amazon Conservation Team and CEJIL)

The Guiana Shield

One of the Last Wild Places on Earth (with the Amazon Conservation Team)

Technology in Solidarity with Indigenous Communities

An impact storytelling map made for Digital Democracy

Vietfest

Vietfest (2014 - present)

An Annual Vietnamese Heritage Festival Organized at Tyson's Corner in Northern Virginia (with NOVAL-DC)

Keeng Kumu

The Life and Travels of an Indigenous Mapping Expert in the Northeast Amazon (with the Amazon Conservation Team)

Amazon Gold Rush

Gold Mining in Suriname (with the Amazon Conservation Team)

Lands of Freedom

The Oral History and Cultural Heritage of the Matawai Maroons in Suriname (with the Amazon Conservation Team, UNESCO, and the National Archives of Suriname)

Earth Defenders Toolkit

A Collaborative Space for Earth Defenders and Their Allies (with Digital Democracy and others)

Sinangoe

Our Territory is our Life (with Digital Democracy, Amazon Frontlines and Alianza Ceibo)

John Smith's 1612 map

Interactive map of Indigenous place names from John Smith's 1612 map of the Mid-Atlantic region

Testimonial

This remarkable project Lands of Freedom: The oral history and cultural heritage of the Matawai Maroons in Suriname presents a wonderful opportunity to enrich our knowledge of the history of transatlantic slavery from the point of view of those communities which still represent, in their symbolic and material production, the collective realization of resistance to barbarism and the dehumanization of slavery.
Tabué Nguma
UNESCO Slave Route Project

Our Team

RUDO KEMPER

Co-founder | Creative Director

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudo-kemper
Github: https://github.com/rudokemper
Photography portfolio: rudokemper.com

DSC_3490

LIZ NGUYEN

Co-founder | Events & Communications Director

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-thaihuong-nguyen-b4895743/

Languages spoken: English, Vietnamese, Dutch, and Spanish.