Finding our way home

Abstract

When we are lost, a map helps us find our way. It helps us locate where we are and the possible routes we could take to our destination. A map can also point out the important features and assets of a community. The big question, then, is who makes the map? The answer will help determine who decides what is important in a community, what routes lie open to the map's users, and, in effect, whose reality counts. In our culture, mapping is primarily a professional exercise, carried out by planners, geographers, surveyors and others. Although the purposes of maps are as numerous as the maps themselves, it's safe to say that - at least historically - maps have been produced to further the economic and political purposes of the economic and political elite. In Canada, the history of map making is intimately tied to the exploration of the land mass and the identification of resources to be exploited, whether that be beaver pelts, lumber, gold or oil. Thus, map making, resource exploitation and the conquering of native land have gone hand in hand since Europeans arrived in this corner of the world. In recent years, however, a newly sprouted grassroots movement is using maps and the map-making process to reflect community values and support socially and ecologically sustainable planning. In the process, community mappers are helping to recover an alternative and less known mapping tradition - most importantly, one nourished by indigenous cultures.