The Cultural Mapping Program (CMP) began in 2004 after the Fiji government accepted and ratified a model legislation that specifically looks at the protection of Indigenous knowledge. The iTaukei Institute of Language and Culture (TILC) was then mandated to be responsible for Cultural Mapping, the program formulated to assist and strengthen the implementation of the Model Law on Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Culture in the 14 provinces in Fiji.

TILC is therefore obligated by this mandate to collect, record, document data from the 1171 traditional villages in Fiji and transfer traditional knowledge and cultural expressions to the younger generations, however, preserving the rights of traditional custodians and owners through legal protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of culture.  

UNESCO ratified the Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) on the 17th of October 2003 in Paris.  Fiji sanctioned the same Convention in 2010 when the implementation of CMP had progressed to its seventh province Bua.   The objective of this program is to safeguard Intangible Cultural Heritage and to strengthen the transmission of traditional knowledge.  Revitalisation of endangered ICH emanates from the CMP exercise.  Endangered ICH are identified by field officers during CMP and revitalisation of ICH will be conducted if there is only one or two surviving practitioners in the village to transmit the knowledge.

The Cultural Mapping Teams are now conducting CMP in the province Ba and is the last province to be mapped.