Vanishing Points

Vanishing Points™ is a website that enables community members in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes to identify points of cultural significance that are threatened due to land subsidence, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion. In efforts to document our threatened culture, students and community members log memories, interviews and photos of places that have defined their community for generations, but are now disappearing. By bringing community and national attention to the societal impacts of this loss, the website encourages advocacy for the protection of the land and, most importantly, our culture.

Land loss in this region is often depicted in maps, but those maps are unable to capture the harmful social effects of the disappearing land. Vanishing Points™ addresses this issue by mapping locations of cultural significance. Not only does the application identify these locations, but it also tells their stories through the voices of the community members. Historical and current pictures show the true geomorphology of the land to supplement what is portrayed by the thematic maps. Vanishing Points™ serves the overarching purpose of recording the culture of the people by the people to help future generations embrace and take pride in the unique culture of Southern Louisiana while sharing noteworthy stories of a people threatened by coastal land loss with the rest of the world.

Click here to access the Vanishing Points™ website!