Canadian Cartographic Materials in a Digital Context

Towards Transdisciplinary Archival Strategies: Canadian Cartographic Materials in a Digital Context By Melissa Michelle Castron A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of History (Archival Studies) Joint Master’s Program University of Manitoba/University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba Copyright © 2020 By Melissa Michelle Castron ii Territorial Acknowledgement As a student in the Archival Studies program at the University of Manitoba, I spent nine months on Treaty One Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. I was privileged to experience Winnipeg as a centre of Indigenous scholarship, research, art, and history. As I researched and wrote this thesis I have been living and working on the unceded Indigenous lands where Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal) is currently located; the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is regarded as the custodians of these lands and waters, though this is a historically significant location for many other Indigenous people and Nations who continue to live in this region. Before starting my post-secondary education, I was born and raised on the west coast of Turtle Island, on the unceded territories of the Matsqui, KWantlen, Katzie, and Semiahmoo First Nations. I continue to learn what it means to be a respectful guest on these lands. iii Acknowledgements This thesis has taken shape over the last three years, although I like to think the seeds were there for a lot longer. It combines tWo things that I love, archives and maps, but I have been lucky enough to take this time to get to know them better. They have challenged me, but I still love them both. I would not have been able to enjoy this learning process without the support of professors and educators who have shown me the paths that were open to me, if only I’d put in the time and the effort to make the journey. Nora E. Jaffary at Concordia University, Tom Nesmith and Greg Bak at the University of Manitoba, and Stephanie Pyne at the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (Carleton University) have each played an important role along the way, and I thank you all for your teaching, your guidance, and your support. I am also grateful for the financial assistance provided through the University of Manitoba Graduate Scholarship and the Dr. James Burns AWards in History Graduate Student Research Assistance Fund. My time in Winnipeg was only as good as it was because I was welcomed into a warm and Wonderful home – thank you Roberta, Rick, MiyaWata, and Padu. I’d also like to thank my parents Leigh and Don, as well as my family and friends for their love, support and encouragement. No one says it will be easy, but I was never alone! Finally, I’d like to thank my partner Daniel. You’ve read a lot of assignments, essays, CVs, cover letters, and drafts over the past feW years. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. iv Abstract Through an examination of the complex history of cartographic records in their archival contexts, this thesis explores the inherent subjectivity of maps, the archives that acquire them, and the digital technologies routinely used to create these materials. I discuss parallels betWeen archival and cartographic theory from the nineteenth century to the present and demonstrate that recent developments in the tWo fields are mutually reinforcing, as they emphasize the subjectivity of professional cartographers and archivists while rejecting simplistic assumptions about the objectivity and purportedly technical nature of mapmaking and archiving. Focusing on theoretical and practical developments in archives and cartography, this thesis supports self- reflexive and transdisciplinary approaches to cartographic materials in Canadian archives. The first chapter delves into the theoretical foundations and more recent developments in the tWo fields. This exploration continues in the subsequent chapters, where the tWo case studies explore the creation of cartographic materials and their processing by archives (i.e. their appraisal, arrangement and description, preservation and being made available to archival researchers). The first case study illustrates the rift betWeen theory and practice, focusing on Canada Land Inventory (CLI) materials held by Library and Archives Canada. An analysis of the creation and ongoing management of these materials reveals the role of cartography and archives in the formation of Canada as a modern colonial state, and in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. The second case study is situated within the broader history of digital technologies, focusing on the digital cartographic tools deployed through Cybercartography While exploring how these might be employed in support of decolonization and reconciliation processes. This case study illustrates the benefits of crossing these tWo fields, articulating a neW, transdisciplinary approach to cartographic materials in archives. v Table of Contents Territorial Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Introduction: .................................................................................................................................... 1 A Self-Reflexive Approach to Archival Analysis .......................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Archives and Cartography: Theoretical and Practical Parallels ..................................................... 7 Chapter 2: ...................................................................................................................................... 27 The Canada Land Inventory (CLI), and the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS): NeW Materials in an Old System .................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 3: ...................................................................................................................................... 58 A Cybercartographic Approach: Putting Cartographic Tools to Work in the Archives ............... 58 Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................... 81 The Benefits of A Transdisciplinary Approach ............................................................................ 81 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 85 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Diagram Showing Flow of Data Preparation Procedures …………………………….49 Figure 2. Illustration of the CGIS scanning and digitizing processes …………………………..50 1 Introduction: A Self-Reflexive Approach to Archival Analysis As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by archives. Not as they are, but rather as a kind of fantastic landscape of hidden places and lost narratives. Adhering closely to this notion of a secret topography of papers, boxes, small objects, and books, is the belief in the existence of a fabulous map that will illuminate these spaces and stories. Delightful. In 2015, I read about archival processes for the first time in Kirsten Weld’s Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala.1 It Was a necessary clarification. Weld describes a repository of police records that was neglected for years, its existence denied by the state, and the painstaking and sometimes hazardous work that preceded public access. The files held there could become key pieces of evidence revealing the human rights abuses that took place during Guatemala’s civil war (1960-1996) if handled carefully and approached systematically. These archives represented a powerful tool of oppression and control for the police force, and this dynamic is inverted When the contents are reclaimed by the people targeted by the same police force. The materials are meaningless without careful documentation of the administrative systems that created them. There is nothing about this process that is mysterious or whimsical. Similarly, in October of 2017, I was given a copy of Terry Cook’s 1984 article, “A Reconstruction of the World: George R. Parkin’s British Empire Map of 1893.”2 In it, Cook explains that a map is a manipulation of facts, communicating a political message rather than an objective representation of geographical information. A map cannot be a neutral representation as it is an authored text, produced with an intended message, and therefore intentionally lies, if only by omission.3 Maps, as many scholars now argue, should not be conceptualized as a faithful representation of geography, but instead vieWed as a Window onto principles of access, use, and ownership that vary widely depending on the context of its creation. As Cook notes, it had been broadly accepted that maps are more objective

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