On the map

Some might say the atlas has had its day, made redundant by GPS devices and online guidance systems. But proponents of that argument have forgotten how poring over maps creates a sense of space in the mind that can’t be replicated by gadgets. They forget how a collection of maps manifests a sense of wonder in the world’s diversity, and a deeper appreciation of how human societies are shaped by their dispersal. And they clearly have not met Dr Bill Arthur and Dr Frances Morphy.

Arthur and Morphy are researchers at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at ANU. While many of their colleagues in anthropology busy themselves in detailed text-based studies of discrete cultures or areas, these two have lately been engaged in an ambitious project to create the first comprehensive spatial analysis of the cultures and societies of Australia. In laymen’s terms, this means visualising information through graphics, and, in this case, plenty of maps.

The editors’ labours have recently come to fruition, with the publication of the groundbreaking Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia. The lavishly illustrated book includes more than 300 maps, charts, illustrations, and the writings of 23 experts on all aspects of Indigenous life, including economics, languages, cultures, artefacts, and more. It is an encyclopaedic work that, for the first time in this country, applies spatial analysis to present a comprehensive picture of Australia’s original inhabitants on a nationwide scale.

“Society is a very complex thing, and there are many ways of looking at it,” Arthur says. “I don’t like to think of any approach being bad or good. They are just different. But looking at the space of a society can tell you something that a text-based approach cannot.”

Arthur has been excited about the possibilities of an extended spatial analysis of Indigenous Australia since the idea first occurred to him in the early 1990s, when he was working on an article for The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Resuming the task fulltime in 2001 at CAEPR, he drew on the logistical skills from his engineering background to plan the major undertaking, enlisting fellow academics from ANU and around the nation to contribute articles and data for maps.

“I have always been striving to make a book that is very accessible, so people from all walks of life would be able to appreciate it,” Arthur says. “Frances has the textual skills to achieve this, which is an important part of the whole project.”

While Arthur focussed on the book’s structure and collecting the maps and hard data, Morphy oversaw the text and illustrations. Together, they set about creating the first atlas of its kind in Australia, and possibly the world.

“I made some enquiries of the National Library before we began all this, and they couldn’t and any other indigenous atlas quite like this one,” Arthur says. As a consequence, the project involved a lot of original work. The lack of an earlier comprehensive spatial analysis of Indigenous Australia meant that the editors had to convert much pre-existing data into the map format. But Morphy says bringing something new into being makes the effort worthwhile.

“The visual approach in our atlas allows complex spatial patterns to be shown in a way that is more accessible than pure text, because it harnesses the eye to the task of interpretation,” she says.

“I’m no expert, but it seems to me that today’s young people are much less text-focused than older generations, and more skilled in understanding visual media.

“More than anything the atlas approach reveals complex patterns of variation and connectedness across the continent, both in the past and today. The effects of European colonisation are very starkly revealed.

“It’s important to stress that we asked the authors to concentrate on those aspects of their topic that were amenable to spatial analysis. As a result some chapters, like the one on social organisation, differ in interesting ways from other texts on the same topics.”

Despite its novelty, Arthur says he also wanted the book to be similar to conventional atlases in its structure.

“We also wanted each chapter to have an integrity, so we have arranged them in a thematic and chronological order, starting out with things like early population movements, and moving on to things like the current levels of Indigenous employment.”

The editors hope that the book will become a much-consulted text in homes and schools, augmented by an online version in development that will allow users to overlay different maps for the purpose of comparison.

But for Morphy, the book’s publication is also a chance to raise awareness about the historical and cultural context of Australia’s Indigenous populations.

“My hope is that it will help to educate young non-Indigenous Australians and give them a context for understanding contemporary issues and policy towards Indigenous Australians,” she says.

For Arthur, conveying a sense of the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures would be a worthwhile legacy for the project.

“There is a tendency among the wider population for people to think of Aborigines as an undifferentiated group, but that is not the case,” he says. “We think this work will highlight the diversity of Indigenous cultures.”

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