Assignment 2:6 “Contrapuntal Cartographies”
In order to address this question you will need to refer to Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” You can easily find this article online. Read the section titled: “Contrapuntal Cartographies” (468 – 470). Write a blog that explains Sparke’s analysis of what Judge McEachern might have meant by this statement: “We’ll call this the map that roared.”
In his article “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation,” in the section titled “Contrapuntal Cartographies” Sparke interprets Justice McEachern’s statement “we’ll call this the map that roared” as a dehumanizing and belittling comment. It is meant to position the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan peoples as a small and harmless group behaving as if they could stand up to and take on the titan that is the Crown government. Sparke parallels the quote with the title of the film “the Mouse that Roared” to indicate the Indigenous group as a “ramshackled, anachronistic nation” (Sparke, 468). It is a blatant attempt at discrediting the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan peoples despite their willingness to adapt and superimpose Indigenous land ownership understandings unto settler land/ownership concepts by literally creating a colonial/Eurocentric physical map detailing how they use the land as livelihood.
A brief search into Justice McEachern reveals he was notorious for disrespecting the Indigenous peoples who came before him in court. Detailed in an article from the Vancouver Sun it is noted ‘in his infamous 1991 decision, Delgamuukw v B.C., McEachern described the life of First Nations before colonization as “nasty, brutish, and short” because they had “no written language, no horses or wheeled vehicles”’ (Mulgrew, 2017). This vulgar statement reiterates yet another example of the insidious misconception in western culture that a written language in some way bares prestige and superiority to languages that do not have a written component. Mulgrew goes on to state “McEachern’s entire book-length decision reeked of the presumption of European superiority, the lynchpin of colonial cruelties that continues to have ill repercussions for First Nations” (2017).
In reality the creation of this map shows both the willingness and adaptability of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan peoples to engage with settler court, play by settler rules, and take to task settler notions of land ownership, an incredible and admirable feat in its own right. Clearly McEachern’s condescension did not go unnoticed as “the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the decision in 1997 saying that, contrary to what McEachern had written, oral histories could be considered legitimate evidence. It was unprecedented” (Mulgrew, 2017).
It is impossible to look at this question without considering the events currently taking place at the Gidimt’en checkpoint and the ongoing protests and blockades occurring across Canada. Sparke uses the term “contrapuntal cartographies” (468) as the title of the section addressing Justice McEachern and the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan peoples. This play on words conjures an image of two lines of music existing simultaneously in some kind of harmony, suggesting the two ongoing and unfolding histories of Indigenous Canada and mainstream Canada are in some way compatible. However, Canadian reality is one of colonial racism, genocide, rape, and murder inflicted on Indigenous people. The Canadian government has much to answer for in the past and has clearly learned nothing from the insidious attacks it continues to perpetrate against Indigenous peoples.
Works Cited:
Sparke, Matthew. “A Map That Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 88, no. 3, 1998, pp. 463–495. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2564238. Accessed 20 Feb. 2020.
Keay, Bill. “Ian Mulgrew: Busted! Begbie Decision, Grand Chief Cast Pall over Top Judges’ McEachern Move.” Vancouver Sun, 5 June 2017, vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/ian-mulgrew-busted-begbie-decision-grand-chief-cast-pall-over-top-judges-mceachern-move.
“Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en Checkpoints on High Alert as RCMP Plan Tactical Unit Assault.” Mother Theme, unistoten.camp/unistoten-and-gidimten-checkpoints-on-high-alert-as-rcmp-plan-tactical-unit-assault/.
Sparke, Matthew. “Figure 1 from A Map That Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation: Semantic Scholar.” Figure 1 from A Map That Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation | Semantic Scholar, 1 Jan. 1998, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Map-that-Roared-and-an-Original-Atlas:-Canada,-of-Sparke/2877846a8126623bd1bccddc415bd4cf59be357a/figure/0.
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, 1991 CanLII 2372 (BC SC), <http://canlii.ca/t/1g2kh>, retrieved on 2020-02-20
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010
Hi Emilia!
I really enjoyed reading your blog, particularly when you made the connection with the current situation at Gidimt’en checkpoint. Even though the Natives have the right to their unceded lands, the government and corporates like Coastal GasLink seem to act above the law and the prior agreements they made. Do you think there have been improvements in legislation that protect Native land? Or it is naïve to believe that we are moving in the direction of reconciliation?
SUPER tough question!! I’d so like to believe that since 1997 more would have been done in terms of reconciliation and protection of land and Indigenous people. However, everything happening on the news today really makes it hard to believe. When the UN is saying the RCMP need to back down but our own Canadian government wont interfere? Its frustrating. One thing I’ve learned about recently is how Canada will use the many levels of government to conflate Indigenous groups seeking legal action, they will tell the groups to go to the Federal government, who will say its a provincial issue, who will say well it crossed provincial boarders, or go to the company that is operating the mine/pipeline etc. The Innu vs the IOC mining corp in Quebec is an example of this thats getting no press in Western Canada https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/supreme-court-rules-that-quebec-courts-have-jurisdiction-in-innu-case-against-mining-company-1.4822035.
Very interesting point about the current event in Indigenous protests on the pipeline. You write that they are positioned as a small and harmless group, but do you believe this to be true? Or do you think they have a chance at the protest?
Absolutely not. It’s a pathetic tactic from the Government that has been repeated throughout history in all Colonial countries from New Zealand to here. The protests are definitely working as Teck, the company associated with the tar sands, is pulling out of the project https://globalnews.ca/news/6589976/teck-resources-oilsands-project-alberta-economy/. I hope the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan peoples can keep up the good fight and get the respect they deserve and that this is a catalyst for more Indigenous groups to reclaim their stolen land, and that finally there will some restitution for the cases of the missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Hey Emilia! Would you be interested in teaming up for the intervention project? I like your stance on Canada’s political and social history … also it seems that we are both actors and know some of the same people. It may be sign!
Hi Sarah! I would love that!!
Amazing! Now we need two more haha. I asked one other person and I’ll see if she responded … I’ll get back to you on this thread. Yay!
I sent you a message on Facebook connecting you and I with our classmate Sophie Dafesh! I am not sure if you have connected with anyone else, but there is room for one more person in our group!