Counter-Mapping Colonial Dominica through an HSDI of Indigenous and Black Geographies

Mark W. Hauser, Northwestern University
Diane Wallman, University of South Florida
Jonathan Rodrituqez, University of South Florida
Khadene K. Harris, Kenyon College
Jaelle Edmund, Create Carribean Research Institute
Joanna Jackson, Create Carribean Research Institute

This presentation explores the challenges of constructing a Historic Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI) of Indigenous and Black geographies to countermap colonial Dominica. Our project integrates archival, archaeological, and geospatial data across multiple temporal and spatial scales to visualize settlement patterns, movement, and resilience strategies of Indigenous, enslaved, Maroon, and post-emancipation communities. A key methodological challenge lies in reconciling the varying resolutions and scales of historical sources—regional, island-wide, and local—which complicates the spatial consistency typically found in HSDI projects spanning shorter time frames. We propose an alternative approach that prioritizes the affordances of Dominica’s high-relief landscape. By emphasizing persistent topographic features as a structuring framework, we integrate disparate datasets while foregrounding the ways communities navigated, occupied, and reshaped their environments in resistance to colonial domination. Our participatory mapping component, co-created with descendant communities, further challenges colonial spatial narratives, embedding local knowledge and lived experiences into the digital archive. This project, developed in partnership with Create Caribbean, aims to produce an open-access, interactive HSDI that supports public engagement and scholarly research. By applying deep mapping techniques, we redefine historical geographies through an anti-colonial lens, highlighting landscapes of resistance and alternative spatial futures to produce an open-access, interactive HSDI that supports public engagement and scholarly research.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 101. NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute 1