“Participatory mapping
has allowed indigenous
groups to produce
and to varying
degrees distribute counter-representations of indigenous
landscapes, including boundaries that delineate ‘their’ lands from those of the
state and other indigenous groups.” (p. 253) Increasingly indigenous peoples
are utilizing cartography and Geographic Information Systems to assert their
claims to land, to seek “more equal participation in the management of
indigenous lands, and to press for state and international recognition of their
cultural exceptionality.” (p. 253) Countermaps by indigenous people, however,
are not a simple attempt to reconfigure formal political boundaries, but
instead a “complex cultural productions informed by contested processes of
place-making and by tensions regarding the meanings of authenticity among indigenous
actors.” (p. 253)
The map above is the product of a
mapping project to delimit Pemon lands in Venezuela. For the purpose of
boundary-making for territorial demarcation, the existence of “traditional
boundaries between villages needed to be obscured.” (p. 269) Their argument was
that “indigenous people don’t have any boundaries,” and therefore a borderless landscape was
portrayed to better integrate the different lands inhabited for generations by
Pemon.
With this map, the “rebordering
process and negotiations for land rights continue. The work
of the government commission assigned the
responsibility for demarcating indigenous lands has been stymied by procedural
conflicts, and the requirements for adequate documentation of indigenous
occupancy of traditional lands
have been tightened.
In January 2007,
a new Ministerio
de los Pueblos Indígenas was established and is now
overseeing the demarcation process, but as of date, no land titles have been
secured by Pemon leaders.” (p. 271)
Geographic Information Systems
therefore provide a great tool to indigenous activists by revealing the less visible
boundaries that often facilitating state control in indigenous lands, and thus helping
activists in their struggle for indigenous land rights.
Source: Sletto, B. (2009). Indigenous people
don't have boundaries': reborderings, fire management, and productions of
authenticities in indigenous landscapes.cultural
geographies, 16(2), 253-277.
I have acted with honesty and integrity in producing this work
and am unaware of anyone who has not. –Ilka Vega
Social sustainability can be maintained with this GIS outlet, and urban planning can reflect this type of GIS data in order to be more inclusive of indigenous opinions on land use. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteSocial sustainability can be maintained with this GIS outlet, and urban planning can reflect this type of GIS data in order to be more inclusive of indigenous opinions on land use. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteIn Dr. Mello's Sacred Space and the Environment class we discussed the idea of boundaries, reading a case study on a Native American group and how their ideas of town boundaries differed from mapped-out political boundaries. There was a very real knowledge among the people in the area of the cultural difference between one town and the next, yet there was no clear "boundary" separating each town.
ReplyDeleteA comparison of this map and a map of historic land disputes that occurred during the establishment of the political boundaries would be interesting. Seeing where indigenous groups were disputing boundaries then could strengthen the argument for these boundaries, especially if a large degree of overlap were present.
ReplyDeleteA comparison of this map and a map of historic land disputes that occurred during the establishment of the political boundaries would be interesting. Seeing where indigenous groups were disputing boundaries then could strengthen the argument for these boundaries, especially if a large degree of overlap were present.
ReplyDelete