Decolonial AtlasMar 17, 2023
Ingenious, Indigenous cartography: The Tunumiit (Eastern Greenlandic Inuit) practice of carving portable maps out of driftwood to be used while navigating coastal waters. These pieces, which are small enough to be carried in a mitten, represent coastlines in a continuous line, up one side of the wood and down the other. The maps are compact, buoyant, and can be read in the dark.
Show threadTiota SramMar 17, 2023

@decolonialatlas especially since these are "readable in the dark" would you mind editing to add alt text? My attempt:

Three pieces of carved wood on top of a map showing a complicated coast with lots of promontories, bays, and off-coast islands. Each piece of wood is a short rod, with notches carved into the sides. The image includes lines to show how the notches correspond to bays on the map and the protrusions in between correspond to promontories; each piece of wood matches one part of the map, and is about the right size to fit inside a closed hand.

Show threadTiota Sram

@decolonialatlas probably should have added more details about the specific correspondences to the map:

One piece is down to match an island, another matches a section of coast, and a third matches the islands that lie off the coast mapped by the second.

Mar 17, 2023 at 12:14pmWeb