• Geography -> Cartography and topography

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How do indigenous peoples' understanding of space and geography differ from Western-style cartography and map projections?

Cherilyn Nannoni

Indigenous peoples think about space and geography in a different way than Western-style maps. They have a deeper connection with the land and see it as more than just something that can be divided up into different shapes and continents.

For them, the land is something that holds cultural and spiritual significance, and maps don't always capture that. Maps can also be flat and distorting, which can mess up a lot of the information that we get from them.

Indigenous peoples have their own ways of thinking about space and geography that are based on their own experiences and traditions. They might use things like stories, songs, or art to represent different places and the relationships between them.

Instead of just focusing on the physical characteristics of a space, indigenous peoples might also consider things like the weather, the animals, and the plants that live there. They might think about how a place has changed over time due to human actions or natural occurrences and how that has affected the land and the people who live on it.

Overall, the way that indigenous peoples understand space and geography is much more complex and holistic than Western-style cartography and map projections. It's important to take these differences into consideration when we talk about the land and the ways that we use it. By doing so, we can gain a richer understanding of the world around us.