[Map of Belcher Islands]

• Other Authors: Flaherty, Robert Joseph, 1884-1951; Wetalltok
• Format: Map
• Language: English
• Published: 1909
• Subjects: Indigenous cartography > Manuscript Maps > Belcher Islands (N.W.T); Inuit > Manuscript Maps; Arctic; Belcher; Belcher Islands; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Northwest Territories; Woodward; eskimo*; inuit; inuktitut
• Online Access: http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/agdm/id/310

Manuscript map. Notations on map in english and Inuktitut syllabics. This map is the central object in the story of how geographical knowledge was passed from an Inuk man named Wetalltok to a non-native explorer. In an article in the Geographical Review in June 1918, Robert J. Flaherty (1884–1951) recounted the story of how, while prospecting for iron ore deposits on the east coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, Wetallok explained the intricacies of the bay’s island system and shared with him this detailed, hand-drawn Inuit map showing remarkable accuracy. Flaherty later directed and produced the proto-documentary film, Nanook of the North (1922) which became one of the best known documentaries of the silent-era. The film has been criticized for its racist depiction of Indigenous Arctic people and is remembered for its stylistic influence on ethnographic documentary film-making. Flaherty told the story of his encounter with Wetallok again in his 1924 book, My Eskimo Friends: Nanook of the North. Recent historians of cartography, notably G. Malcolm Lewis in Cartographic Encounters: Perspectives on Native American Mapmaking and Map Use, and Lewis and David Woodward in History of Cartography, also have used the map as an example of indigenous cartography. The map is drawn with pencil on the back of a missionary lithograph. Notations are in English and Inuktitut syllabics. Flaherty’s annotations include “Little Whale River” [with arrow], “Whale River” [with arrow], and “3 days = dogs = app. 70 miles.” Color 1:330,000