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Pictographs

6 Days of Cultural Experiences with Pauingassi First Nation Guardian Colin Owens 

December 18, 2023

Notes & photos from nature photographer Ōtake Hidehiro

1. Thursday | Net Fishing, Sacred Rock & Plant Medicine

Colin and his wife Cora took me to set a fishing net. We boated for 4.5km to get to the netting point and put the net into water. The net was 40-50m long or so.

Colin took me to a sacred rock. He put tobacco under the rock. It should avoid the direct sunlight and wind so that it won’t blow away, he said. It is also a good hunting spot for geese. He showed me the blind made by rocks to hide the hunter from geese.  

Along the shore Cora was collecting medicine plants. She took just the tip of the twig of the shrubs to get buds. “It is good for your heart,” Colin said. It has a minty, herby, refreshing taste! 

Colin also tried to get a root of sweetflag from the muddy ground for medicine.  

2. Friday | The Catch

Surprisingly, we caught many fish just for overnight! We kept 32 walleyes, two big northern pike and 14 whitefish. We put a net into water again. Colin and Cora were busy cutting fish even after dark! We went to get the net out from the water in the evening. We caught a few more fish to cut!

3. Saturday | Smoke House

Colin built a smoke house for whitefish with fresh green birch trees for poles. He carefully selected the right size of tree, which would easily bend and be strong enough at the same time. 

Cora cooked fried bannock and fish (northern pike) for dinner.

4. Sunday | Smoking Fish

Colin started smoking whitefish around 11am. He needs old aspen trees for the smoke. He prefers almost-rotten logs, which produce a lot of smoke. He kept feeding the fire and checking the condition of the frame and temperature. It took 6-7 hours to finish. He was checking the colour of the fish meat to know if it is done or not. 

Cora cooked moose stew for dinner! It was so tasty!

5. Tuesday | Moose Call

Today Colin showed me how to make a moose call out of birch bark. Colin looked for the right size tree around town but most of the trees were too old or too small. The moose call we made became a bit shorter than usual. After we made the moose call,  we drove Colin’s truck to the edge of the town and tested it on a hill. “It should work. We will try it in the bush tomorrow,” he said.

Pauingassi First Nation Guardian Colin Owens tests a moose call that he made of birch bark.

6. Wednesday | Boat Ride, Pictograph & Moose Call

Colin took me on a boat ride! We visited a pictograph. It was very interesting to see. Colin told me that looks like three turtles and some kind of animal below it.

He brought a shotgun and rifle in case we could see any ducks, geese or moose.

We tried to call a moose in two different locations and waited for quite a long time. Unfortunately no moose came out, but it was wonderful to learn the Anishinaabe way of life on the land. 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with me, Colin!

Photos: Ōtake Hidehiro

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, Food, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Plants, Uncategorised Tagged With: birch harvesting, fishing, guardians, moose call, net fishing, Pauingassi First Nation, Pictographs, smoke house, smoking fish, sweetflag

5 Spectacular Pictographs Explained

June 15, 2020

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

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, First Nation Communities, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Tagged With: Bloodvein River, Bloodvein River First Nation, Elders, guardians, offerings, Pictographs

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