Table of Contents

A Place for Maps 10
Te Whenua 12
Introduced by Dan Hikuroa
Water and Air 36
Introduced by Veronika Meduna
Living Things 60
Introduced by James Russell
Places 82
Introduced by Ben Schrader
People 114
Introduced by Tze Ming Mok
Government 142
Introduced by Andrew Geddis
Movement and Energy 168
Introduced by Patrick Reynolds
Heart and Memory 196
Introduced by Nadine Anne Hura
Afterword 220
Appendix One: Tools and Software 222
Appendix Two: Technical Notes and Data Sources 223
Contributors 234
Acknowledgements 236
Index 238

About the Author

Dr Chris McDowall trained as a geographer with a focus on cartography and human geography. He has worked variously as cartographer, environmental scientist and manager at the University of Auckland, Landcare Research, the National Library of New Zealand and Figure.NZ. The common thread through his career is a desire to make the nation’s data easier to find and interpret.

Tim Denee is a Wellington-based designer who has worked across a range of disciplines — interactive design, product design, illustration, art direction and typography. He has designed book covers, websites, apps, brands and museum experiences. http://www.timdenee.com/

Reviews

‘If the visualisation of data can be counted as an expression of science, then this is a book to be treasured. It shows New Zealand in ways that need no words to leave a deep impact – such as the pages covered in hundreds of thousands of data dots, with each dot representing a child growing up in poverty.’
*New Zealand Listener*

‘Data as poetry, as art, as cartography. A revelation. Buy it for everyone for Christmas.’
*Unity Books bestseller chart*

‘Honestly this is spectacular. By rights it will become as ubiquitous as that big blue Union-Jacked Reed New Zealand Atlas was when we were kids.’
*The Spinoff*

‘What Chris McDowall and Tim Denee have made is a smashed-it-out-of-the-park heroically monumental work of data visualisation art. We Are Here deserves to become a much-loved dog-eared reference, and not just among data nerds like me, but in homes, schools, libraries, businesses, and government offices.’
*The Spinoff*

‘The book as a whole, thanks to designer Denee, is a masterful visualisation of McDowall’s data. I’m pretty comfortable calling the book a work of art that ultimately falls within a tradition of conceptual documentary art from Billy Apple to Ruth Watson.’
*EyeContact*

‘There is an honesty and a passion in this work. It tells some powerful stories about Aotearoa – some are very thought provoking, others make uncomfortable reading. But “our past has happened and we can learn from it,” says Lillian Grace in the Afterword, “but the future – well that’s in our hands and hearts: we are here.” This atlas must surely make a significant contribution to the spreading of such a sentiment.’ 
*Mary Spence MBE*