Why is New Zealand Missing from So Many Maps?
Somewhere between a mistake, a meme, and yet another Mercator-projection downside, poor New Zealand keeps being literally left off the map. Part of this absence is simply because it’s become an ongoing joke, but it’s also due to our maps’ Eurocentric perspective and misguided beliefs about New Zealand’s significance.
Still don’t understand how this could happen or want to get a better picture of the full story? Let us explain a bit further.
That Mercator Map
The Mercator Map distorts the appearance and location of New Zealand. Just like this 16th-century projection distorts other countries and landmasses, similar powers are at work here.
The result of this is that one of our most widely-used projections completely misrepresents our Kiwi friends’ homeland. In reality, this island nation is not on the fringe away from everything else of significance, yet the Mercator projection’s insistence on centering North America and Europe makes it just that.
New Zealand is then portrayed as a tiny blip in the Pacific’s hinterlands, reducing both its physical presence and its perceived importance alike. Swallowed up in the vast oceans that appear even bigger on our maps, cartographers claim it’s all too easy to miss, and their creations reflect that. Suddenly, their maps are done and NZ is nowhere to be seen.
Of course, plenty of people don’t find the country so forgettable. But even the mapmakers who make a point of its inclusion are always able to protect it from its seemingly inevitable fate. Those who are actually in charge of map posting or distribution will still often crop out New Zealand to save a little space.
Getting In On The Joke
Much of New Zealand’s unfortunate situation is because the Mercator projection is a textbook example of map bias. Still, our internet humor also plays a role in how widespread it has become. Indeed, New Zealand’s absence from our maps has become a favorite joke on social media, undoubtedly fueling the constant stream of omissions.
Haven’t come across it yourself? It’s grown into a verifiable meme. Go on Twitter and search for the hashtag “mapswithoutNZ,” and you’ll see pages after pages of people making fun of this phenomenon. There’s also an entire Tumblr page still up that was devoted to maps without New Zealand.
Complete with a news-ticker meme declaring New Zealand’s status as simply “Gone!”, it’s pretty chuckle-worthy but does a good job supporting the idea that maybe － just maybe － we’re all part of the problem.
After all, we’re the ones buying and using these maps. If we, the consumers, don’t have a problem leaving New Zealand off the map, there’s nothing really prompting cartographers or the companies they’re working for to change.
New Zealand Is M.I.A.
Having your entire country forgotten or wiped off the map can’t necessarily feel all that good, but New Zealanders generally have a good sense of humor about the whole thing.
Most regular people are more likely to laugh about it themselves than feel any real sense of hurt or annoyance, and many wouldn’t notice it without prompting. Their own government isn’t especially bothered, either, evidenced by their permanent 404 page cleverly showing off a world map sans New Zealand.
You have to admire those Kiwis’ self-deprecating humor. Yet, make no mistake, NZ’s absence from our maps isn’t necessarily innocuous.
In fact, it’s a symptom of a very real issue － that we’re seriously under-educated about New Zealand.
Ask someone off the street what’s wrong with a map lacking the country, and there’s a good chance they’ll have no idea or at least take forever to figure it out. Those same folks likely couldn’t tell you much of anything about its history, people, or government, and personally, we think that’s a problem.
