“The map depicts Indigenous place names across Canada, shared by permission of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and people. The names express territorial rights and describe the shapes, sounds, and stories of sovereign lands. The names mark the locations of the gathering places, the communities, the places of danger and beauty, and the places where treaties were signed. The names are ancient and recent, both in and outside of time, and they express and assert the Indigenous presence across the Canadian landscape in Indigenous languages.
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.”
“Dr. Margaret Wickens Pearce is a cartographer and the author of several award-winning maps, including Ivoka Eli-Wihtamakw Kәtahkinawal/This is how we name our lands (Penobscot Cultural & Historic Preservation, 2015) in collaboration with Penobscot C&HP, and They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616 (Canadian-American Center, 2008), in collaboration with Michael J. Hermann.”
