ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we trace the history of the collaboration between a storyteller and two researchers to reflect on the notion of cartographic co-construction of memories. Emmanuelle Kayiganwa is a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She shared her life story in 2009 as part of a research project called ‘Montreal Life Stories’. A first map based on her story was produced and shared with her in 2015. Following this first exchange, other maps of her story have been designed over the years using different experimental cartographic tools and methods. Each map was shared with her, leading to extensive discussions and to her slow involvement in the mapping process. The different stages of this collaboration have been mapped out using a sensibility mapping approach that retraces the multiple decisions made throughout this process. Mapping this process led us to reflect on the potential and limits of the back and forth between the researchers and the storyteller, between the maps and the story, to co-construct spatial memories of traumatic events.
