Tuesday, March 20, 2018

History of places, named


Go to their site to embiggen this
Historian Donald Wright draws our attention to a new map of what we call Canada, one that contains only indigenous place names. As he says, "it changes how one 'sees' and 'reads' Canada."

“Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada” was commissioned by the Canadian-American Center (Stephen Hornsby, director) at the University of Maine, and designed  and created by cartographer Margaret Wickens Pearce, with permissions from First Nations throughout. It is accessible (free to look at, small fee to purchase in hard form) from their site here. As they say:
The map does not depict all of the Indigenous place names of Canada, nor are all Indigenous Nations and communities represented. Beyond the map’s names are thousands upon thousands more, an ever growing and expanding atlas of intimate, geographical knowledge and experience.
The intention of the map is to create respect for Indigenous homelands and sovereignties, and a feeling for and understanding of the place names.
Update: the text has been revised to correct a misattribution of design credits.
 
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