Part of the ACC/CCA’s Knowledge Within Us digital publication.

in school, my mapping classes unsettled me 

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Mama learned to drive in her early 40s 

we’d often practice the same routes in that middle passage between her G2 and G licensing 

for her, practice 

for me, a mapmaking exercise unravels 

now, a decade later 

I can’t recall the small town trips we made 

there’s preservation in not remembering, keeping those 

trips untouched allows for them to be frozen in a memory 

where she is teaching me how to drive but instead it has 

been almost a decade since I was eligible to drive and 

I have yet to sit behind a driver’s seat 

I’ve made progress, though, and learned how to ride a bike 

my feet take me most places on good days 

how we walk is spectacular, and forces a decolonial speed 

do you ask for permission when you walk? 

who do you ask it from? 

is the buoyancy from gravel to grass one that you learn from? 

walking queers the embodiment between the self and 

geographical spaces, deeply interrupted by privileges of 

race, class, gender, sexuality, ability –– 

do you think about the space between your feet, 

rolling a pebble across your path? 

do you sense the interruption that ruptures the otherwise 

patternicity of your mapmaking? 

is that ok? 

when western cartography is presented to us, 

patterns that comfort, guide, support –– 

how does that all-knowingness get tucked away 

we meander through spaces constructed and unconstructed 

in school, my mapping classes unsettled me 

why are all these roads named Victoria?

Shalaka Jadhav spent her childhood between cities in India, and in Dubai, before moving to the Greater Toronto Area. As a twice-over immigrant, Shalaka is interested in pursuing questions around value relating to power and authority.

In the past year, she worked in an editorial role to launch the inaugural issue of Textile, a magazine focused on uplifting and prioritizing underrepresented voices along a portion of the Haldimand Tract (Waterloo Region), during which she developed and executed workshops for equity-seeking youth. Currently, she is working with Textile to support a series of talking circles for urban Indigenous youth on themes of space under the support of Pins and Needles Fabric Company. Shalaka is interested in how arts-based methodologies can provoke new collaborations and insights, and has worked with elders from Saddle Lake Cree Nation and graduate students at the University of Alberta to produce an augmented reality installation that prioritized Indigenous approaches to knowledge and storytelling.

She has also co-produced a museum exhibit evaluating decent work and migrant worker justice as part of an interdisciplinary design team, and worked in the urban planning departments for several municipal governments.  She has performed work at the 2019 Common Waters festival.

Trained as an urban planner, she hopes to follow the advice of aptitude tests to pursue curatorial studies.  She’ll likely point out the names of “weeds” as you walk together, enjoys studying the menus of local restaurants for fun, and always orders dessert.