Matt Sparke’s 1998 paper “A Map That Roared” has always struck me as a unique achievement.  I re-acquainted myself with the ideas and arguments Sparke puts forth in that paper when I had the occasion in a graduate seminar to read his book “In the Space of Theory” which includes that earlier paper as one of its chapters.
Despite addressing an issue from a specific moment, the argument in Sparke’s paper remains fresh some 15 years or so past.  The moment itself was as unique as it was long in gestation: Delgamuukw v. British Columbia was in the courts, and a landmark decision in favour of the former brought oral testimony into the land of legitimacy.  Oral transmission of knowledge was, has always been, legitimate for the First Nations of Canada.   Now, however, that legitimacy lay in a terrain of power, and the negotiation of comprehensive land claims between the state and its First Nations sat on more equal footings.
The way Sparke describes this moment is often times very theoretical.  The thread of the argument can be abstract, dealing with post colonial theory of ruptures vis a vis Homi Bhabha (1994) and Edward Said (1993).  It was through Sparke that I became aware, and enamoured, of the idea of “contrapuntal cartographies.”
Contrapuntal cartographies is an elegant way of saying ‘counter-mapping.’  It makes both the mapping and the counter-argument into a dance of give and take, of theme and variation, of recurrent melodies and discordant harmonies.   At times Sparke borders on the baroque, but it is in keeping with the musical metaphor, and he makes sure to ‘touch down’ regularly in the real world of the courtrooms, where paper maps and their counterparts, spoken word maps, clashed.
The dance was more complex than it might at first seem, not as simple as indigenous people v. the state.  The oral testimonies were made as assertions of boundaries between two adjacent First Nations, the Nisga’a to the west, and the amalgamated Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en to the east.  This sorting out of boundaries was essential for the Nisga’a people on the eve of their comprehensive land claim victory which was ratified in 1998, not long after the Delgamuukw decision.  But in making their claim, the Nisga’a had overstepped their bounds, claiming territory of the neighbouring people, the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en.   (This is far from unusual, in fact it is the norm.  See the ‘boundary chaos’ map on the Aboriginal Mapping Network site).
Thus one piece put in place (Delgamuukw) facilitated another falling into place very quickly after (the Nisga’a ratification).  In this way a three way clash and dance, rupture and amalgamation came to play out in the late 1990s in British Columbia.  15 years on both the Nisga’a and the now separate Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en now have a wide range of challenges ahead of them, from diminishing funding, to the continued perpetuation of paternalistic  state policies towards First Nations.  The post-colonial condition seems protracted in Northwestern BC, less a song than a long drawn out coming of age, a partially resolved coming into being, into self-determination and local control of local affairs.  Finally neither Bhabha’s rupture nor Said’s song does justice.  (For insights on this condition see Gregory, 2004).
Sparke turns to the Atlas of Canada in the second part of “A Map That Roared.”  He examines the “Narration of Nation” the Atlas as a whole provides, focusing as well on a map of Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en territories.  The Atlas’ pedagogical value is discussed, as well as its unique status as one of the few atlases to include realistic and robust cartographic depictions of the indigenous beginnings and foundations of what we call Canada today.  The involvement of Cole Harris in the conception and execution of the Atlas should be no surprise.  Harris has long fought for and written about mapping Canada’s First Nations “back in” to our cartographic narratives (Harris, 1997, 2002, and 2008).
Ultimately Sparke finds the foundational depiction of First Nations in the Atlas limiting for two reasons: first, it relegates First Nations to a thing of the past; second, the foundational quality itself is too rigid and essentializing, contributing to a reification or museum-ification of a range of widely dispersed indigenous groups.
Try and try as white academics might, we never quite get it right.  Newer and more sophisticated analyses, by Sparke and Harris for instance, present ever more nuanced and sensitive analyses of the heterogenous nature of colonial and postcolonial conditions.
My own theory is that the reality of the situation is ‘out there’ ‘on the ground’ as lived by ever-resourceful imaginative, and determined individuals willing to devote their lives to fighting for what they believe in.  I have encountered this quality in band offices across the country where whites and non whites work side by side.  This is not to homogenize what should be a distinct fight for the inclusion of indigenous interests and self-determination.  It is, however, to avoid the dangerous blood quantum calculations currently being carried out on some reserves.
My own experience has revolved around map making and GIS, and I have found that the GIS departments in many band offices usually include a few ‘outsiders,’ white people often with a great deal of training in euroamerican cartographic techniques.
It is in these offices or ‘niches’ of cartographic production that I hope indigenous and non-indigenous cartographers will continue to make More Maps That Roar, like those presented in the court rooms in Smithers and Vancouver in the late 90s.  I don’t mean this in a litigious sense.  Litigation is in many ways limiting for self-determination efforts.  I mean that cartographers have the power to assert the peoples who reside in the blank spaces and silences of Canada’s hegemonic cartographies won’t go away, they (and we) adamantly say ‘we are here to stay.’
 
References:
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.
Gregory, D. (2004). The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. Oxford, OX, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA :: Blackwell: Blackwell.
Harris, C. (1997). The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Harris, C. (2002). Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Harris, C. (2008). The Reluctant Land. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Said, E. (1993). Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage.
Sparke, M. (1998). A Map That Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 88(3), 463-495.
Sparke, M. (2005). In the Space of Theory: Postfoundational Geographies of the Nation-State. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Sterritt, N. J., Marsden, S., Galois, R., Grant, P. R., & Overstall, R. (1998). Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Watershed. Vancouver: UBC Press.