A picture is worth a thousand words, but what about a map? Sometimes it’s the empty spaces that speak the loudest.

Dr. Margaret Pearce, cartographer and writer, candidly illustrated for us the sheer time and effort needed to make one single map. Her latest, “Coming Home”, a seemingly traditional map of Canada but with a twist – labelled with indigenous place names. Designed in exactly the same way as the Atlas of Canada poster maps so it would feel “equal”, Margaret called around for permissions to give names to places. Through this map, she proposes an alternative vision where the map becomes a space for ruminative imagining, repositioning familiar anchors to tell a new story. But some spaces on the map remain glaringly empty. These tell a story too, a story of withholding or only partially telling.

Her current work in progress, a map of Inuit Nunagat, seeks to illustrate Indigenous Peoples’ “right to be cold” (Siila Watt Cloutier) and the impact that the warming of the Arctic will have beyond the confines of the region. This particular project struck a chord with several members of our staff, with the Arctic environment being a key focal point in our work. Margaret’s answer to being asked why she was making this map was simple but powerful – it's the responsibility of a cartographer to try and convey the idea that what’s happening here will impact the rest of the world.

Share this Story

Snow Leopards in Central Asia

By Maria Dalby and Guendalina De Luigi

Natalia Skripnikova, GRID-Arendal

Blue Carbon as a catalyst for change

GRID-Arendal staff travels to Kazakhstan for CAMCA partners meeting & communications workshop

GRID-Arendal’s work for lifting mountains in 2023