This article explores the history and significance of the AIATSIS map, a visual representation of the diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. Created for the 1996 'Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia', the map aims to counter the colonial simplification of the continent's geography. While the encyclopaedia has become outdated, the map remains a valuable tool for understanding Indigenous cultural diversity.
Map s are complicated things. They're supposed to give information and bring perspective; but depending on its creator's motives, those perspectives can be problematic. Aboriginal and Torres Strait cultures use bark paintings, sand sculptures and rock art to feature geographical information. Spears can be incised with the location of wells and rock holes, each with a memorised name; shells carved into the likeness of islands.
We're all familiar now with the colourful patchwork of the AIATSIS map. But the divisions those colours represent are not so simple as western colonial maps, whose hard lines depict political jurisdictions and little more. Instead, the map tries to give an idea of the richness and complexity of the overlapping ties to places, and between peoples, that were developed over millennia. Each patch represents a larger grouping of people.
Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander AIATSIS Map Indigenous Knowledge
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