About the work

Location: Lake Superior Provincial Park, Northern Ontario. Canada
Notes: Watercolour painting. This is one of Canada's most famous pictograph sites and probably the most visited indigenous archaeological site. A rock ledge runs along the length of a white crystalline granite 30m (100 ft) rock face, contrasting with the red paintings, mineral traces, and lichens. Lake Superior’s cold blue-green waters remind you that one slip or a rogue wave could change everything. Visible today pictographs include canoes and native animals such as moose, deer, bear and caribou. This painting is from a visit to the site by boat, and at this vantage point, I could easily see “Mishipizheu,” a spined-horned animal, or the Great Lynx. Mishipizheu is considered the Manitou of the underwater realm, controlling the weather on the lakes and stirring up the waters with its tail. Near Mishipizheu is a canoe with five occupants and two snakes; the snakes are considered evil spirits and water gods. The other pictograph that can be seen in the painting is a horse with a rider, under which are four spheres and two lines. The horse did not show up in the area late in the 17th century, and the rider is said to be a powerful shaman involved in a conflict over the area’s minerals; the spheres represent either the level of his power or the days travelled. The two lines are part of a circle that is enclosed in the painting, which has faded and chipped off; barely visible is a small animal in front of the horse, a small canoe, and a cross. There have been over 100 pictographs recorded at Agawa Rock that indigenous peoples have painted in the last 500 years, and many have faded over time.