Canada History Week 2020: Environmental History Learning Tool

INDIGENOUS STEWARDSHIP OF THE LAND

EXPLORE PIMACHIOWIN AKI: 5 SPECTACULAR PICTOGRAPHS EXPLAINED Established in 2018, Pimachiowin Aki covers almost 30,000 km² of boreal forest in Ontario and Manitoba. It is the first, and only, mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site in Canada, where the designation is for both natural and cultural significance. 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, beautified with handprints, animals, canoes, snakes, and other symbols painted with a paste made of a red ochre and fish oil or bear fat.

Bison pictograph in Pimachiowin Aki. Photographer: Hidehiro Otake. Photo courtesy of the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation.

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

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