Counter Mapping

Zuni farmer and museum director Jim Enote is rethinking map-making. After all, who’s to say that north has to be at the top, geographic features must be to scale or roads have to appear at all? Through his Zuni Map Art Project, he works with Zuni artists to create maps that convey stories of place, heritage and history — helping them reclaim the stories of their lands. The results are both beautiful and profound. “We limit ourselves if we think of maps as only two-dimensional,” he says. “There are maps in songs, and in prayers, there are maps that are etched into stone, woven into textiles and painted on ceramics.”