Sound of the Drum, Energy of the Dance - Making the Lake Huron Treaty Atlas the Anishinaabe Way

This thesis takes a reflexive narrative approach to critically interpreting the iterative processes involved in the making of the Lake Huron Treaty Atlas (the Atlas). The Atlas is an interactive, multimedia, geospatial web product that reflects an inclusive approach to telling the story of the Robinson Huron Treaty relationship process over time and across space, bringing together a variety of historical and geographical perspectives. Both the thesis and the Atlas interpret Anishinaabe perspectives and incorporate them in their style and approach; they participate in the current trend in critical cartography to engage in mapping in new ways by reflecting the multiple dimensions of socioeconomic, political and cultural ‘reality’. Making contributions in many areas, including in the conceptual and practical spheres of cartography, this thesis comments on some deep trends such as the spatial turn to performance and the critical turn to interpretation. In addition, it participates in the seventh fire project of reconciliation reflected in the significant Anishinaabe Teaching, the Seven Fires Prophecy, by promoting a holistic and emergent approach to development, and by emphasizing the possibility of bridging perspectives to build intercultural awareness through the collaborative creation of the Atlas as a reconciliation tool. This thesis asserts that through holistic, reflexive and critical cartographic practice, it is possible not only to acknowledge Anishinaabe perspectives in mapping processes, but to integrate them as well, in a manner that (1) preserves their inherent meaning and value, and (2) augments the meaning of the cybercartographic mapping processes. I aim to demonstrate how this type of practice has been employed in the Lake Huron Treaty Atlas project by providing critically reflexive narrative accounts of the Travels in the Making of the Atlas Map and the Map of Maps, each of which functions as a narrative portal to the other maps in the Atlas.