Between the Dreamtime and the GPS / The Metaphysics of Indigenous Mapping
Abstract
Although many scholars have written about the relationships
between land, mapping, power relations, and sovereignty, very few have
explored the relationship between the imbricated fields of Aboriginal
mapping, Indigenous aesthetics and placemaking, and the ways in
which Aboriginal maps, both customary and contemporary, contribute
to the conversation about remembering, Indigenous knowledge
production, and cultural survivance.1 If maps construct rather than
reproduce the world (Wood 2008: 92), how can the documentation
and creation of an Indigenous mapping archive assist in bringing
forward Indigenous worldviews, in particular those that emphasize the
significant interrelationships between land, aesthetics, and Indigenous
senses of place? To date no such archive exists. This doctoral project sets
out to conceptualize and design a mobile Indigenous mapping archive
that will carry within its walls an exhibition of Indigenous artists’ maps,
a mapping library, two digital interfaces, Indigenous teachings, and
ceremonial artifacts. The importance of this archive lies in its ability to
assist settler and Indigenous communities to mutually grapple with how
land matters to Indigenous Peoples in what is now known as Canada,
and specifically with the gap between “what is known and what is
merely seen” (Wood 2008: 92).
URI for this record
http://hdl.handle.net/1974/27540Collections
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