For Assignment 2:6, I have decided to answer the following question:
3) 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.”
The section that we are required to read to answer this question refers to a court trial between both the Gitxsan and the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people and the federal government of B.C. In this case, titled Delgamuukw v. the Queen, atlas’ were used by both parties to explain the origin of their ascendancy. Upon being presented with this cartographic tool from the First Nations people, judge Allan McEachern stated that that “We’ll call it the map that roared” (Sparke). A cartographic tool is the result of cartography, which is defined by Webster dictionary as “the science or art of making maps”. This definition fails to emphasize the idea that any party can create a map based on their own beliefs, resulting in completely different maps from completely different parties of identical regions. We will use this understanding as well as Matthew Spark’s “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and Narration to Nation” to discover why the map used in this given case was described as roaring. Sparke accurately describes Canada’s past, or “our past” (Sparke), as “heterogeneous”. The origin of Canada’s history begins with different people, depending on who you ask.
The meaning behind a paper tiger which is by Webster dictionary’s definition, “one that is outwardly powerful or dangerous but inwardly weak or ineffectual”. Sparke uses this description to describe how he believes that Allan McEachern viewed the presentation of the indigenous map. The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people used catrography not to try to prove superiority, but instead to try to create equality in historical perspectives and demonstrate their importance and rights. Chief Justice Allan McEachern approached the map in a belliteling way by acknowledging the power that it was intended to bring to the courtroom but by viewing it passively, minimally attempting to look past his own, European-rooted history.
Additionally, Sparke touches on the possibility that Allan McEachern’s claim could have been “a reference to the 1959 Peter Sellers movie satirizing Cold War geopolitics, “The Mouse that Roared ””. (Sparke). The title of this movie indicates that when a small and arguably not very powerful country declared war on America, the superpower country, it became a mouse that could surprisingly, roar. Both references undermine the First Nations people involved pin them as a mouse, or as a timid and ineffective party.
When I first read Allan McEachern’s words, I was impressed and excited by the credibility that the judge had given this first-hand evidence, brought forward by the First Nations people. When reading further and looking into the way that Sparke interpreted his words, I sadly see that “the map that roared” (Sparke), was more condescending than anything and it “simultaneously evoked the resistance in the First Nations’ remapping of the land”, a cartoonist working for the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en said. (Sparke) In the end, “McEachern ultimately dismissed the Gitxsan and Wet’swuet’en’s claims with a remarkably absolutist set of colonialist claims about extinguishment of aboriginal rights” (McEachern, 1991). This confirms my thought that unfortunately, in McEachern’s eyes, the map never truly roared at all.
Sources:
Hi Alexandra! We wrote on the same question, which I found so interesting both in relation to the course and the readings but also in relation to the current state of affairs taking place on the very same land this map is in reference to. One aspect I explored was the creation of a physical map and how that relates to earlier questions of written versus oral traditions. I’m curious to hear if you also find it interesting that the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people participated in settler-legal systems by transcribing oral accounts of land usage onto a physical map, and that in 1997 the Supreme court of Canada over turned Judge McEachern’s ruling?
Hi Alexandra,
I found it interesting that when you read that Judge McEachern had called it the map that roared that you had assumed it to be a positive phrase. One reason that I found that so interesting was because I too had initially assumed it to be a positive phrase, only to later discover that the reference was one that was used in a derogative manner. Additionally I was intrigued by the way in which it was transformed by Indigenous peoples as a phrase to revolt against settler colonial land claims. I am curious to as to why you think this phrase has such a different interpretation then its intended effect by the judge?
Sophie
Hi Sophie!
Thank you so much for your comment on my blog. I actually felt that and was concerned that I sounded somewhat naive when I mentioned that this phrase initially came off to be positive. I am very happy and interested to hear that you felt the same way. I believe that my original interpretation simply came from the sounds of the phrase, roared being a powerful world.
Hi Alexandra, glad we get to finally connect! We wrote on the same question, and you make some really interesting observations here!
What I found most interesting in your response was how you initially interpreted Allan McEachern’s words as something positive and uplifting of the map that the First Nations people had presented as evidence. This was a perspective I had never considered as I read Sparke’s interpretation before writing my post, however, it makes total sense. “The map that roared,” in a different context, could very well be a positive comment. It presents the map as something strong, powerful and fearless like a lion. I just found it interesting how context can take a statement and make it mean something completely different. In a different situation, McEachern could have been giving a compliment, however, we sadly know that this is not the case.
Sorry I don’t have a question, but I hope you found this observation interesting as well!
Hi Chase,
Thank you so much for your comment on my blog and please, do not apologize for not having a question. I enjoyed reading your comment regardless! Yes, I can see how someone more educated on this topic and the references that Sparke makes would not initially perceive Allan McEachern’s words to be positive. I completely agree with you. I think that the positivity came from the word “roared”. I assumed it to be powerful and positive. Unfortunately, the comment was more condescending and undermining than positive. I hope you have a great week!
Hi Alexandra,
I really enjoyed reading your post.
Maps to me are a very interesting tool that have an immense amount of power. Colonial maps, for example, recognize land, territories, and borders, through their own definitions. These maps have material consequences that determine who can go where, what land is ‘yours’ and what land is not. Remapping, therefore, can be a form of resistance of the way certain maps are viewed as the truth.
Colonial maps also center Europe and North America and are not always to scale. This is to glorify the importance of particular nations over others. Even though maps are assumed to be true because they simply depict the world around us, this is not always the case.
Do you think it is possible that popular maps will ever change to reflect the belief’s of various cultures?
-Jade 🙂
Hi Jade!
Thank you so much for responding to my comment and providing your insights. I found your question particularly interesting because I have wondered this as well. I have wondered if there is a way for a single map to be shared by different cultures, histories, and beliefs. My worry is that in order for this to happen and be agreed on, the land itself would have to be shared and agreed on as well. Unfortunately I think that this may not be able to happen in the near future. Hopefully it will happen eventually!
Thanks,
Alex