Ancient pictograph 'windows into the past' still used as teaching tools today in Norway House Cree Nation

A northern Manitoba educator says he and the students he works with continue to learn from the ancient knowledge and teachings offered in aseries of rock paintings in Norway House Cree Nation, Man.

Charles Ettawacappo, a land-based education co-ordinator atFrontier School Division, boatsregularly to the ancient site on Paimusk Creek for school trips.

Ettawacappo has been learning from the rock paintings for many years, he said.

The pictographs contain predictions of what wouldhappen on the First Nation's territory, he said.

Land-based activitiesare more exciting than classrooms forthe kids he works with.

"I don't really have a hard time finding students to come for these trips."

Perry Blomquist, a Creearchaeologist at Manitoba's Historic Resources Branch, said rock art in the Canadian Shield is usually found near water, where the rock faces the sky andthe water meets the underground.

"That's why you see rock art made where it is, because they're directly trying to communicate with [spirits]," he told CBC.

There are 13 different panels of pictographsat thePaimusk Creek site thatcontainover 130 elements, he said.

"That's an amazing concentration of rock art."

'Need to know our roots'

The pictographs were made to honour specific ceremonies, puberty rites and hunting and vision quests, he said. Some were simply road maps and ways for people to share their vision.

"I think they're important now, because they depict a way of life as it was viewed by the people who created them," he said. "It just shows a picture of the past that you don't get to see anywhere else."

Edward Albert, a member of Norway House Cree Nation, said not many people from his community are able to visit the site. Hegot emotional when he saw the pictographs, and said they are important connections to his ancestors.

"We need to know our history, we need to know our roots.It was almost lost."