indigeneous – The Map Room

Algonquin Bead Artist to Reinterpret Cold War Maps

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:18:29 +0000

The Diefenbunker is a Cold War-era fallout shelter on the outskirts of Ottawa that has since been converted into a museum. Its large floor maps, never used or displayed, are serving as grist for an Indigenous artist in residence, CBC Ottawa reports:

As the new artist in residence at Ottawa’s Diefenbunker Museum, Mairi Brascoupé is blending Cold War-era maps and beadwork to explore the idea of “place” during times of change.

Brascoupé, a member of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, wants to weave her own story by exploring the differences between cultures of Indigenous people and settlers.

She plans to use waterways and traplines in contrast with fallout zones, evacuation plans, and other details of the museum’s maps.

Mapping Memory: An Exhibition of 16th-Century Indigenous Maps

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 15:05:57 +0000

Unknown artist, Map of Teozacoalco (detail), Antequera (today Oaxaca), Mexico, ca 1580, tempera on paper, 69.2 x 54.3 in., Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Libraries.

Unknown artist, Map of Teozacoalco (detail), ca. 1580, tempera on paper, 176×138 cm, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Libraries.

Mapping Memory: Space and History in 16th-century Mexico, a new exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, presents “a selection of maps, known as Mapas de las Relaciones Geográficas, created by Indigenous artists around 1580. These unique documents show some of the visual strategies used by native communities for the endurance and perseverance of their cultures throughout the so-called colonial period and well beyond.” Opened 29 June; runs until 25 August.