Map/Erase
Mapping is an act of simultaneous creation and destruction. By drawing boundaries, categorizing spaces, and naming territories, explorers like Martens participated in a process of cartographic violence. Indigenous geographies, oral histories, and intricate relationships with land were effectively erased, replaced by European conceptualizations that transformed living landscapes into abstract territorial units ready for economic and political manipulation.
Mapping is an act of simultaneous creation and destruction. By drawing boundaries, categorizing spaces, and naming territories, explorers like Martens participated in a process of cartographic violence. Indigenous geographies, oral histories, and intricate relationships with land were effectively erased, replaced by European conceptualizations that transformed living landscapes into abstract territorial units ready for economic and political manipulation.