Whilst in London, and before returning home, I drew a map of Malta from memory. It was a way of capturing all my idealistic images of home, before they would be erased by my return and by my immersion into research and hard fact. Of course the map is completely distorted by nostalgia and forgetfulness, it is in fact, perfectly inaccurate.As I drew it I began to feel quite uncomfortable. I started to realize that it reveals more about me than about Malta, and the thought of ever showing it to a Maltese person was beginning to freak me out, because they would be able to read all sorts of things about me by looking at the map, it would be as though standing naked before them. My non-Maltese critics at university in London began to appear completely nonthreatening!
A plan began to emerge. Since this map was my version of Malta - and since I don't want the project to be completely from my perspective - I would have to get the map corrected, so that it slowly became the Maltese* version of Malta.
check the Search of a Maltese Identity blog to know what happened next...
*I say "Maltese" for lack of a better word. I wish to use a word that does not in any way exclude people who live in Malta, or consider Malta their home, but are not defined as "Maltese". However I chose to use "Maltese" because it contrasts with previous versions of Malta that were presented by colonisers, because I hope to give value to the "Maltese" perspective by mapping it.
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