Bon Echo Park Wanderer: the pictographs

Information in the Visitor's office

Our Bon Echo Park NHE told us that Algonkians travelling through the park would be here merely a week. They were, however, the ones who painted the pictographs hundreds of years ago. They are not sure when!

On Mazinaw Lake, the giant rocks rise up. Aboriginal Peoples used the lakes for transportation between summer and winter hunting grounds.

I did a bit more research, since Bon Echo Park (here is the post including the audio as we created the echo –it really works!) uses the pictographs for much marketing, between the boat ride out to see them, and the Friends logo design, I wanted to get to the heart of the matter.

A model longhouse in the
Arthur Child Heritage Museum

We knew so little about such peoples. The gr. 6 curriculum now includes Native Studies, there are many resources, but I found in my experiences primarily middle-class, white teachers might not be the best choices to deliver this information. We usually brought in native experts from the area to talk to our students. There are many more internet resources, such as an interactive map that tells the reader which bands lived in particular areas. In this case, it was the Algonkians, native peoples of the eastern woodlands. Watch the spelling, as there is some confusion between the Algonquins and Algonkians. This article, Algonkians, has some fabulous photos and artwork depicting native life of hunter gatherers. Many tribes traded with one another. There were places where they met, shared their goods, and traded. Between the farmers and the hunter/gatherers, it began an era in which surplus was traded.

Native People: Eastern Farmers

Native People: Eastern Hunters

Back when teaching student teachers at uOttawa, I created a PPT presentation that helped me and my students, understand the development of the Ottawa area. We so often are ignorant of these ancient histories.  It show how hunters and gatherers changed their lives over time, as we invaded and technology changed how people met their needs for water, shelter, food, clothing.

I found this article that explains the significance of the pictographs.

At the Bon Echo Visitor's Centre

Archaeoacoustics - Spirits in the Stones

The summer of 2004 has seen interesting discoveries in Canada and India that highlight a new branch of archæological research – archæoacoustics. Old rocker Paul Devereux explains how we may now be able to hear the soundtrack of the Stone Age.

There are around 200 paintings, daubed in red ochre, on Mazinaw Rock, a cliff-face over 1km (0.6 mile) long rising up to 100metres (330 ft) out of Mazinaw Lake, one of Ontario’s deepest. The name “Mazinaw” derives from the Algonkian word mu-zi-nu-hi-gun, meaning, variously, writing, picture, painting, book, and often interpreted by extension as meaning “pictures in the water” at the Bon Echo and other smaller but similar sites.

You can see where Park people tried to figure out a formula.

The exact recipe is unclear