Boundary Work, Art, and Place

Boundary work, art, and place is an emerging intersection of interests in human geography that uses creative activity to facilitate place-based research and governance in partnership with Indigenous peoples. The strategy uses creative expression—art—to create “boundary objects” or entities that communicate and coordinate meanings across epistemological barriers. Boundary work engages art in this way in order to amplify the place-based perspectives of Indigenous peoples. The process of cocreating artwork brings academic and Indigenous epistemologies into productive collaboration, nurtures and bridges Indigenous knowledge across generations, facilitates the participation of the most marginalized, and educates non-Indigenous people about the protocols of Land and Country. The integration of art and place into boundary work has taken the concept from its origins in Science and Technology Studies and actor–network theory toward a decolonial “border thinking” that supports Indigenous knowledge and self-determination. Future developments portend engagements with other place-based communities of practice, including marginalized communities situated in excluded spaces (e.g., refugee camps, ethnic enclaves) and creative place-making in urban areas undergoing gentrification.