Indigenous Place Names as Visualizations of Indigenous Knowledge

Abstract

Place names are a linguistic message carrying spatial information. These names contain a wealth of knowledge in regard to descriptions of landscape, environment, navigation, past events, and people’s overall relationships to place. In cases where this information is part of an intergenerational, long-term relationship with a specific landscape, place names can be considered Indigenous knowledge and thus, may be especially significant within the context of places that have been subject to colonization, or have undergone significant environmental change. Until very recently, place name studies were often limited to a focus on linguistic elements and confined to paper as text. However, the advent of new digital technologies can now allow us to look at place names in new and different ways by using them as the input on digital mapping platforms to create visualizations of space. This chapter outlines three specific techniques that I developed over the course of my dissertation working together with members of the Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) on place names and Indigenous place naming conventions. Using the structures, meanings, and sounds of some of these names, I demonstrate how mapping these different aspects can produce visual patterns that allow us to see a landscape in new ways. These techniques, when used with community participatory mapping, can facilitate better understanding and representation of Indigenous relationships to place through digital mapping.