Margaret Wickens Pearce

A Cartographic Common Ground for Indigenous and Western Climate Knowledge

This project aims to cartographically represent the connections between local/indigenous and Western knowledge of climate adaptation and resilience. Based on the findings of a livelihood adaptation to climate change study in Northern Tanzania, the project addresses the urgent need for effective cross-cultural dialogue for the sharing and synthesis of climate knowledge. It asks, “How can we connect indigenous and non-indigenous strategies for climate adaptive capacity using cartography?” The goal is to develop and deploy a multi-layered map as a device to foster dialogue between local and outside experts where previous strategies have failed. In so doing, this work will help answer questions of climate knowledge and culture in indigenous geographies and the geohumanities, critical cartography, and ecocriticism; contribute a solution to the need for effective communication in order to address the climate-related crisis of livelihood loss in the region; and offer a model useful to communities worldwide facing parallel circumstances

Photograph by Jason S. Ordaz.