Pimachiowin Aki

World Heritage Site

Cultural Heritage

We’ve Answered Your Questions: Mixed World Heritage Sites Explained

What is World Heritage?

World Heritage recognizes places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity. It is like a badge of honour provided by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). When a UNESCO World Heritage site has been added to the World Heritage List, it is the world’s way of recognizing that this place should be preserved for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.

What is Cultural Heritage?

Heritage is our legacy from the past, how we live today, and what we pass on to future generations. Cultural heritage consists of everything that we value and share through generations:

  • Objects that we can see and touch, like cabins, travel routes, manoomin (wild rice), landscapes and artifacts
  • Things like language, songs, knowledge, beliefs and practices

Cultural heritage provides Anishinaabeg with: 

  • Our livelihood, such as hunting, fishing and trapping 
  • Knowledge of the land, like what rivers are safe to cross and what plants can be used as medicine
  • Skills, like how to smoke meat and cure hides

Our cultural heritage is invaluable. It connects people and unites communities, helping us understand who we are and how we contribute to the world. Cultural heritage has helped Anishinaabeg protect and preserve Pimachiowin Aki for millennia. Today, we are connected to the land and care for the land in the same ways we did over 7,000 years ago.

Types of World Heritage Sites

There are three types of World Heritage sites: cultural, natural, and mixed. 

1. What is a mixed World Heritage site?

  • A mixed heritage site is one that contains elements of both natural and cultural significance   
  • There are 39 mixed sites in the world with only one in Canada: Pimachiowin Aki

        
2. What is a cultural World Heritage site?

  • Cultural heritage sites are typically historic buildings and town sites, important archaeological sites, and works of monumental sculpture or painting—like the Writing-on-Stone/Áísínai’pi World Heritage site on the border between Canada and the United States of America, for example 


3. What is a natural World Heritage site?

  • About one in five World Heritage sites is recognized for its outstanding natural value—like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, for example
  • Natural and mixed World Heritage sites protect over 369 million hectares of land and sea 

Pimachiowin Aki has been described as “a landmark nomination” because it is so unique—it is impossible to separate the people (culture) from the land (nature). The area received worldwide attention and inspired UNESCO to change the way it evaluates mixed World Heritage sites. Read more about how Pimachiowin Aki became a catalyst for change. 

Timeline 

The nomination was a long time in the making. In 2002, First Nations in Manitoba and Ontario signed an Accord to protect and manage ancestral lands and have these lands recognized as a World Heritage site. But the work started even before then.

The First Nation communities of Pimachiowin Aki were working individually on their own land management plans for many years. Board Member Ed Hudson from Poplar River First Nation says, “The protected area came into being before Pimachiowin Aki.” The Poplar River land management plan, and protection of Asatiwisipe Aki (Poplar River ancestral lands), became legally recognized in 2011. 

Pimachiowin Aki became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. Here’s a quick look at how we got here:

2002 | First Nations sign an accord to protect and manage ancestral lands

2004 | Canada adds Pimachiowin Aki to a shortlist of tentative UNESCO World Heritage sites after a review of 125 potential sites

2006 | Manitoba and Ontario join the First Nations to form the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation. Together, the partners work toward the goal of a Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage site

2011 | After many years of research and community engagement, each First Nation completes a land management plan that sets out how our ancestral lands will be protected and how they can be used in the future 

2012 | Canada submits the World Heritage site nomination bid to UNESCO on behalf of the Pimachiowin Aki partnership

2018 | Pimachiowin Aki becomes the first UNESCO World Heritage site in Manitoba and the only ‘mixed’ site in Canada, recognized for both its cultural and natural values (more on that below)

How Does UNESCO Protect World Heritage Sites?

Raises awareness 
As a World Heritage site, people learn about Pimachiowin Aki’s history and traditions, the environment, and the importance of protecting this rare and special place.

Strengthens authority
Pimachiowin Aki First Nations maintain authority to make decisions about the land. To remain a World Heritage site, the rights of the people who live here must continue to be respected.

May receive expert advice on how to support preservation activities 
Pimachiowin Aki First Nations can benefit from advice on how to explore local economic opportunities like eco-cultural tourism or ways to protect culture heritage, such as land and language programs. 

Protection during a war 
Once declared, Pimachiowin Aki became protected under the Geneva convention against destruction during a war .

For the last two years, Bloodvein River First Nation, Poplar River First Nation, Pauingassi First Nation and Little Grand Rapids First Nation, along with two provincial parks, have added this extra layer of protection for the land and culture. “We’re still in the planning stage for the next steps regarding the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage site status. We received the status and now we have to work harder,” Ed adds.  

The work that Ed mentions will be done by all of the First Nation communities, and will include protecting cultural and natural values with these guiding principles in mind: 

  • Continue to protect the site
  • Foster local economic growth
  • Safeguard Anishinaabe cultural heritage
  • Safeguard the boreal forest for the benefit of all humanity into the future

In the Ojibwe language Anishinaabemowin, Pimachiowin Aki means the Land that Gives Life. It is a gift from the Creator to share with the world. Anishinaabeg maintain this gift the way it was given to us. With World Heritage Site inscription, we are sharing the expansive boreal forest and all that it provides. In addition, we are sharing our history and inspiring teachings with the world.

See Pimachiowin Aki on the World Heritage List and view the UNESCO photo gallery: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1415/

UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.

Sources: https://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco and discovercorps.com

5 Spectacular Pictographs Explained

The Bloodvein River waterway in Pimachiowin Aki contains the largest collection of pictographs in Canada. Hundreds of millennia-old pictographs (rock art paintings) have been documented at over 30 locations, including this cliff face on Artery Lake, beautified with handprints, animals, canoes, snakes, and other symbols painted with a paste made of a red ochre and fish oil or bear fat.

Paddling up to one of these rare images is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Canadian author and pictograph-hunter Selwyn Dewdney called these particular sites along the Bloodvein River a “rare experience” and a “supreme reward.”

Elder Leslie Orvis of Bloodvein First Nation suggests making an offering each time you pass by a pictograph.

Here’s a close-up look at five spectacular pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki:

1. Moose

Recently, Pimachiowin Aki Board Co-Chair William Young took Elder Leslie Orvis to the site of this moose pictograph on the Bloodvein River. Leslie believes that the message behind this drawing is of respect. 

“Respect the land,” he says. He then echoes the words of Elder Kenneth Owen—“If you are looking for moose to hunt, you put down tobacco in order to have a successful hunt.” 

Leslie and other Elders in Bloodvein River First Nation aim to teach local students about Anishinaabe history, culture, and language. They are developing a program that will be a part of the curricula after the community’s new school is built.

2. Kingfishers

In some cases, scholars suggest that Anishinaabeg created pictographs to mark significant personal events or associations between certain clans and areas used for traditional land use and ceremony. This pictograph found at Sasaginnigak Lake shows two Kingfishers, one of the clan emblems of Anishinaabeg in Pimachiowin Aki.

This particular pictograph was probably painted in the early 1800s by members of the Kingfisher clan who wintered at Sasaginnigak Lake and used the lake as part of their family harvesting area (Petch 2010).

3. Bison

The bison in this pictograph is recognized for its circular hooves and the dark outline that appears to indicate its heart. 

In the 1950s, guided by Ojibwe elders, Selwyn Dewdney began his studies of pictographs on the Canadian Shield. His book titled Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes names this pictograph the Bloodvein Bison and describes it as “beautifully proportioned.” 

The book, co-authored by Kenneth E. Kidd, suggests that this pictograph is located a hundred miles north of where the bison herds once roamed, and the person responsible for the drawing was from that region or had traveled a far distance to hunt there.  

4. Shaman

Dewdney titled this pictograph the Bloodvein Shaman. The shaman is carrying a medicine bag. Dewdney notes that the zig-zag lines that appear above the shaman’s head are also seen in other pictographs, and are often interpreted as thoughts or magical powers. He adds that the “large canoe beneath and the porcupine to the left might represent the fighting prowess and clan of the shaman.”

5. Wigglers

Dewdney refers to these pictographs as the “two curious wigglers” but does not provide details on what they represent. In his Ramblin’ Boy blog, True_North suggests “they may be representations of the medicine serpent.”

Many of the drawings in Pimachiowin Aki include animals and people that one can assume were based on powerful spirit beings and first-hand experiences of the artists. Each pictograph has its own significance. Archaeologist Jack Steinbring writes, “The imagery may often be prompted by dreams, or visions sometimes induced by fasting or prolonged concentration.”  

How Pimachiowin Aki Guardians Help Preserve Pictographs
The spectacular pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki are well preserved. Guardians keep the sites clean of any litter, in addition to educating people about the importance of respecting the pictographs (i.e. leaving offerings, not touching or wetting them, etc.).

The rate at which the pictographs are deteriorating due to natural weathering is unknown. Lichen encroachment is probably the most serious threat.  

Locating Pictographs in Pimachiowin Aki
Pictographs are usually found on steep granite rock-faces overhanging the waterways of the boreal forest.

The drawings are typically found in places associated with powerful spirit beings, such as next to water, at the intersections of sky, earth and water, underground, and underwater. 

Not all pictograph locations are to be revealed. 

“There are rock paintings at Dog-skin that are sacred because the people of Little Grand Rapids believe that those paintings were made by the little rock people (memegwesiwag). The rock people were part of creation and were here from the beginning.” 

—Joseph Levesque, Sr. (in translation, 2014)

Anishinaabeg communicate with memegwesiwag at particular pictograph sites by presenting offerings to demonstrate respect and request assistance in travel or hunting.

“There is a cliff-rock-painting of a snapping turtle [on a certain river]. When someone travels along over there, they’d cut some tobacco. They would say, ‘I will kill a moose’ as they placed tobacco in their pipe. Sure enough, that was exactly what would happen. That person would get the blessing to kill a moose.” 

—Elder Kenneth Owen of Pauingassi First Nation (in translation, 2007) explains the importance of a particular pictograph in communicating with the memegwesiwag responsible for the painting

For more images of pictographs, including a link to the digital version of Dewdney and Kidd’s book, click here: 

https://archive.org/details/indianrockpainti00dewd/page/n1/mode/2up

Anishinaabe Pictographs On The Bloodvein: The Artery Lake Site

Sources

Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes by Selwyn Dewdney and Kenneth E. Kidd
Discussion paper: Rock Paintings in the Eastern Lake Winnipeg Watershed by Jack Steinbring 
Cultural Landscape: Macro Scale Document. Virginia Petch, August 2010

Tips on How to Smoke Fish and Meat

After 46 years as a commercial fisherman, Frank Young Senior retired last year. That doesn’t mean he has stopped fishing. Today he fishes to feed his family, to share with Elders in the community and neighbouring communities, and to pass on traditions to his children and grandchildren.

Frank and his wife Ellen raised two daughters and a son in Bloodvein River First Nation. He says that his daughter Lisa, who now lives in Winnipeg, wants to learn how to smoke meat, and his grandchildren are interested in fishing.  

“We go out on the lake in the boat with the net. They really enjoy that,” he says.

Learning to fish, hunt and trap are a right of passage for youth living in Pimachiowin Aki, and learning how to prepare and cook meat is passed down through generations. 

“When I cut up and dry meat, my daughter always wants to be there,” says Frank, adding that his grandchildren like to watch him filet fish.

Frank has also done a lot of moose hunting, sometimes traveling a long way to “get moose just about every year.” He says that he cuts the moose into quarters to haul it home, where he then cuts it up into smaller pieces.

“My daughter wants to learn how to cut up meat into slabs and hang it,” he says. She was helping me last year. She’s very interested in stuff like that.”

If you’re interested, too, here are some tips from Frank:

The Best Wood for Smoking Fish and Meat
“Look for dead poplar trees,” says Frank. He builds a fire out of dried poplar, found right outside his home. Poplar is best because it doesn’t have sap—trees with sap make a black fire.

Frank’s Tips on How to Smoke Meat
Historically, many people would smoke meat to dry it out, to preserve it. This was in the days before electricity and deep freezers, Frank explains. “Now that we have a freezer, I still smoke meat because I like the taste of it. It’s tradition.” 

Frank hangs pieces of moose meat on sticks and smokes them.

 “There was someone who was drying meat a couple of years ago and he used spices,” Frank says. “That’s not the traditional way of doing it. I don’t use spices, just salt. That’s how it was done when I was growing up so that’s the way I do it.” 

Unlike fish, which is smoked for flavour and then boiled or cooked afterward, smoked meat is eaten right away.

Frank’s Tips on How to Smoke Fish
Frank has his own smokehouse where he smokes catfish, whitefish and goldeye. “We don’t smoke pickerel filets,” he says. “We fry those with flour and butter.”

Franks recommends using birch sticks to pierce the fish. He smokes six to eight whitefish at a time. The fire should have a small flame, he says. 

Frank closes the door and just lets it smoke. “You don’t want to dry it out,” he warns. “Just smoke it long enough to have the flavour.”

Try this Duck Fat Potato Recipe!
Fish, moose, and duck are favourite traditional foods along with delicacies like smoked meats, white fish, and pickerel caviar.

Little Grand Rapids First Nation Guardian Dennis Keeper says that duck is one of his favourite traditional foods. He notes that the ducks are especially fat this year, so he looks forward to trying this duck fat potato recipe:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/duckfat-potatoes-recipe-1957259

You can watch a video with British Chef April Bloomfield making Duck Fat Potatoes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93404IQdSSY

The recipe is on page 238 in her cookbook ‘A Girl and Her Pig: Recipes and Stories’.

Why Do Moose Avoid Travel in Winter?

Each season brings its own gifts to Pimachiowin Aki. As the landscape, wildlife, plants and trees go through seasonal changes, life on the land changes, too. Use our calendar to gain seasonal knowledge and trace our traditional land use activities throughout the year.   

In February, Moose avoid travel because the ice on the snow cuts their shins.

Download the calendar

Winter Solstice! & Other Celebrations to Enjoy this Season

There is a lot of joy to experience right now in Pimachiowin Aki, including these celebrations:

1. Joyful Month – Kissing Month

As people gather for winter celebrations, they greet each other affectionately—with a handshake and a kiss on the cheek—so December is known as the joyful month and January is known as the kissing month. In Pauingassi First Nation, December includes a Christmas dinner for the entire community. There is a similar feast for the Bloodvein First Nation community, with each household receiving a turkey.

2. Winter Solstice

December 21 marks the day with the shortest period of daylight in 24 hours and the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), all thanks to the tilt of the earth.  

This date also means that winter is officially here. In Anishinaabemowin, winter is called Beepoon. The December moon is called makoshkish giizis and is known as the joyful moon. 

The colder, shorter days bring with it a peaceful silence, a kind of muffled quiet as you walk outdoors to gaze at the stars in the night sky. Enjoying a warm fire, being cozy under a blanket, ice-skating, playing hockey on the frozen lake, snowshoeing, tobogganing, and cross-country skiing are just some of the activities to look forward to as we celebrate the joys of winter. 

3. Magu zhi giizhigan & O gen du giizhigan

Younger generations of Anishinaabeg follow the 12-month calendar, but Elders in Pimachiowin Aki used the seasons to measure the days. We followed the 13 moons, which meant 13 months of 28 days, explains Bloodvein First Nation Guardian, Melba Green. “They didn’t really have holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving,” she says. Today, many people in Pimachiowin Aki celebrate Christmas, known as Magu zhi giizhigan, and the New Year, known as O gen du giizhigan.

Look Away from the Geese (and Other Fall Tips)

With Waatebagaa-giizis (September) comes the ‘leaves changing colour’ moon. The days become shorter, the air feels chillier, and we know that takwagin (fall) is upon us. The communities in Pimachiowin Aki ready for winter by harvesting medicines like wiikenzh (sweet flag), picking manoomin (wild rice), and collecting wood. Other preparations for the colder months include hunting moose, duck and geese.

Traditionally, the men in the communities do the hunting—while men know when to hunt for which animal, women know which medicines to harvest and when. Bloodvein First Nation Guardian Melba Green says that this kind of knowledge has been passed down through generations “from our ancestors.” For Anishinaabeg, it’s like instinct, she says. “We know which way to go, by following the trails for many years.”

Anishinaabeg know that the shorter, cooler days of fall and the leafless fall forests provide ideal conditions to hunt moose as the animals concentrate along the rivers, lakes, and forest openings to mate, Melba adds. 

Tradition tells us that hunting on a windy day may prove more successful, she says. The noise made by the moving trees helps to camouflage the sound of a hunter’s feet. Also in the fall, legend cautions Anishinaabeg to not watch the Vs of geese flying south or it will be a long and hard winter.

Come October, trappers will set their sights on muskrat, beaver and otter, and will dry the pelts for future use. The taste of the beaver meat changes after the first snowfall, making this the best time to harvest.

Melba says that Anishinaabeg share their knowledge with each other. “If one wants to know how to skin an animal, you can go to a trapper and they will share their knowledge. It’s been like that for many, many years,” she explains.

Photo: Hidehiro Otake