About

The Decolonial Atlas is a growing collection of maps which, in some way, help us to challenge our relationships with the land, people, and state. It’s based on the premise that cartography is not as objective as we’re made to believe. The orientation of a map, its projection, the presence of political borders, which features are included or excluded, and the language used to label a map are all subject to the map-maker’s bias – whether deliberate or not. Because decolonization is a process of unlearning and rediscovering, we’re especially committed to Indigenous language revitalization through toponymy – the use of place names.

The Decolonial Atlas is a volunteer-run project. Our original content is offered for free through the Decolonial Media License 0.1.

39 comments

  1. My relative Oliver Daunais was married to the daughter of Chief Joseph Tchiatan, from my understanding he was Ojibwe. I am seeking more information on the Chief and his daughter. Thank you.

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  2. Great work. Have you ever tried making your own map projection? You can do it with something like FlexProjector. You can make projections a lot better than… what is that, Robinson? Anyways, I really like it, being a geography need and such. Keep it up!

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    • Projections have been perfected over the centuries, & we already have good ones:

      Peters
      Hobo-Dyer
      Mollwede
      Sinusoidal

      Peters for best scale, & cylindrical advantages, arguably the most useful.

      Hobo-Dyer for nearly as good scale, 2nd best, also cylindrical. Without Peters unrealism criticism.

      Mollweide for best realism.

      Sinusoial for its simple derivation from the globe, true scale on central meridian & every parallel, & conformality on equator & central meridian. All parallels same length & spacing as on globe.

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  3. I am so impressed by this project…truly amazing! Maps tell so many stories. This is a wonderful tool to learn more about my Irish and Menominee ancestral lands and relatives. (I would like to see more of Menominee lands.) Beautiful work! This is what the world needs now….

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