Kahnawà:ke:
Reading Memory’s Lines
Spring 2025
Kahnawà:ke, QC
Mapping, Graphics
Kahnawà:ke, QC
Mapping, Graphics
In collaboration with Cécilia Burlet
Supervised by Anabelle Tougas
Kahnawà:ke is a territory belonging to the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) First Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Located on the south shore of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, the Indigenous reserve whose name means “On The Rapids” is occupying
today only a fragment of its ancestral territory.
The mapping produced during the territorial analysis of Kahnawà:ke illustrates the territory’s various “boundaries” : artificial, natural, visible, invisible, and more. Administrative boundaries constitute a first layer of artificial and invisible limits. Their significance is reinforced by the presence of bridges, electrical infrastructure, railway networks, and road network; government-owned infrastructures that divide the territory and create visible boundaries.
Other boundaries also shape the territory in visible but natural ways. These include waterways, small rivers, the Saint Lawrence River, lakes, ponds, woodlands, and forests. As a result, administrative boundaries can sometimes be inferred through urban patterns: Kahnawà:ke appears as a nature oasis within the highly urbanized Montérégie region.
This mapping is further enriched by temporal and historical boundaries. One of the most significant is the artificial transformation of the shoreline during the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s. Other events have also profoundly impacted the Kanien’kehá:ka community; the most important of these have been identified and documented along a timeline.
The final category of boundaries examined concerns those created by external perceptions. Examples include tourist-oriented infrastructures such as golf clubs, as well as the well-known casinos and tobacco retailers. For many residents of the Montérégie region, Kahnawà:ke is reduced to these institutions, which often contributes to negative stereotypes about the community. It is important to note that some of these businesses are not owned by the community and operate on leased parcels of Kanien’kehá:ka land without contributing to the local economy.
Finally, external perceptions of Kahnawà:ke are often limited to the areas visible from the road network, whereas the true heart of the community lies along its shoreline.
The mapping produced during the territorial analysis of Kahnawà:ke illustrates the territory’s various “boundaries” : artificial, natural, visible, invisible, and more. Administrative boundaries constitute a first layer of artificial and invisible limits. Their significance is reinforced by the presence of bridges, electrical infrastructure, railway networks, and road network; government-owned infrastructures that divide the territory and create visible boundaries.
Other boundaries also shape the territory in visible but natural ways. These include waterways, small rivers, the Saint Lawrence River, lakes, ponds, woodlands, and forests. As a result, administrative boundaries can sometimes be inferred through urban patterns: Kahnawà:ke appears as a nature oasis within the highly urbanized Montérégie region.
This mapping is further enriched by temporal and historical boundaries. One of the most significant is the artificial transformation of the shoreline during the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s. Other events have also profoundly impacted the Kanien’kehá:ka community; the most important of these have been identified and documented along a timeline.
The final category of boundaries examined concerns those created by external perceptions. Examples include tourist-oriented infrastructures such as golf clubs, as well as the well-known casinos and tobacco retailers. For many residents of the Montérégie region, Kahnawà:ke is reduced to these institutions, which often contributes to negative stereotypes about the community. It is important to note that some of these businesses are not owned by the community and operate on leased parcels of Kanien’kehá:ka land without contributing to the local economy.
Finally, external perceptions of Kahnawà:ke are often limited to the areas visible from the road network, whereas the true heart of the community lies along its shoreline.