Oiseau Rock, located in western Pontiac County, Quebec, is a sheer rock face about 150 metres in height which rises straight out of the Ottawa River near Chalk River, Ontario. It was a sacred site for Native Peoples who have left behind a remarkable legacy of ancient pictographs which may still be seen today.

 Location

Oiseau Rock is a large outcrop of rock on the Ottawa River in Pontiac County, Quebec. It is situated across from the Atomic Energy of Canada research laboratory at Chalk River, Ontario. This part of the river is very beautiful as the river narrows, the water deepens and the channel is flanked by the Laurentian Mountains. Towering green pines border the blue waters. The immediate area's only development on the River, besides the Laboratories, consists of a few cottages. The Rock is located approximately nine miles downriver from Deep River, Ontario, 18 miles upriver from Pembroke, Ontario, and eight miles upstream from Fort William, Quebec.

Locals tend to pronounce it "Weeso Rock" corrupting the French word. When one approaches the Rock from down-river (the Petawawa end), the Rock cannot be seen since Oiseau Point bars the view. This makes the Rock's appearance even more spectacular as one revels in the unexpected: a massive mountain that rises straight out of the River and reaches a dizzying height, with dwarfish pines clinging to its rocks and crannies.

Access

No roads leads to the rock so all access is by boat. Boats can be launched at Pembroke, Petawawa and Deep River, Ontario, and at Fort William, Quebec. Boats may be anchored on the sandy beach on eastern side of Oiseau Point. For further information about boating on the Ottawa River, contact the Ottawa River Waterway.

Hike to the top

There are picnic tables and an outhouse adjacent to the beach and a path leads hikers to the top of Oiseau Rock. The hike to the top takes 20 minutes but at one spot, it is steep and rocky and one needs to hold onto small trees to balance on the rock steps. At the top, the path forks into two: one leads to the lookout over the River and the Petawawa Plains, and the other takes you to the spring-fed lake.

At the lookout, children should be supervised as there is no barrier and the ground is eroding there.

This lake is unnamed and it is pretty spot. Go for a swim and have your lunch at the picnic table. Another lake is further back, and behind it is another high rock which affords a spectacular view, but there are no path leads leading from the first lake.

Rock Face - Sacred Site

As one approaches the rock, one will notice an accumulation of graffiti. Some of it is 50 to 60 years old. Unfortunately, it covers rock paintings (pictographs) which were done by First Nation peoples. These pictographs are picture writings which were put there by Algonkian-speaking peoples. The paintings were done with red ochre, a mineral that is found in many places across the Canadian Shield. The closest mine containing red ochre is at Mattawa. Not far away at Morrison's Island in Ottawa River, near Pembroke, Ontario, archaeologists found a site which is 5000 years old where ochre was sprinkled around the buried. Ochre was mixed with oil from an agent such as sturgeon fish, blood, animal fat, egg yolk or even honey. After this paint is applied to the rock surface it lasts for a long time outliving the house paint used in the graffiti. .

Oiseau Rock possesses many of the typical attributes of a sacred site: a vertical rock wall immediately beside the water . Here, the sky, land and water meet so the Manitous (spirits) can travel from this world to the next. Native people also believed that spirits dwell in creatures - people and animals - and even in the components of the land, such as rocks. Pictographs were created at a place that was the home of the Manitous. It is believed that an image is a testimony to ones' spiritual experience whereby a powerful healer documented his entrance into the rock seeking medicine.

History of Oiseau Rock

The historical record indicates that Native people have considered Oiseau Rock to be a sacred site. In the 17^th century, an explorer commented that Native people made offerings there throwing arrows with tobacco attached to them over the rock. In 1913, a Temagami Indian told an anthropologist, that there was a picture of Nanabojou (an Ojibwa Manitou) on a rock on the Ottawa River.

Yet many Algonkian legends are associated with the rock. One is that a baby was saved by an eagle from falling over the top of the cliff. Another story is how an eagle plucked a baby from its mother arms and flew to the top of the Rock. The mother bravely climbed the Rock and snatched the babe from the eagle. A more tragic tale is that of a Native woman, grief-stricken over the death of her love, leapt from the Rock to her death.

 There are other images on the rock which include fish, canoes, arrow heads, and a human-like figure with a weapon. According to Dr. Daniel Arsenault, an archaeologist from Laval University, A...this site is the biggest rock art site known in the Quebec part of the Canadian Shield...and among a few with paintings reproduced on such a huge outcrop within the Canadian Boreal Forest.

In the late 1970's, another archaeologist, Gilles Tasse and the late Selwyn Dewdney, Canada's foremost authority on pictographs, visited Oiseau Rock. They published a report which depicts the images on the rock. Since then, some of those images have been covered with graffiti. There are 15 to 20 figures. One mural is located near a vein of white rock and their close proximity to it is not accidental.

Scholars have attempted to attribute meanings to these images. Some of the possible meanings to the images found in Shield rock art are linked with the Oiseau Rock pictographs and are explained below:

This figure could be Nanabojou also called Weeskijock (the Manitou who created the ground, the animals and plants.) Nanabojou was the first stone tool-maker so the stone points shown on the pictograph could indicate homage to this spirit and for the gathering of flint for the making of tools. Also, the upraised arms could signify that the seeker was reaching to receive gifts from the Fiche Manitou who is the Great Spirit, the highest Manitou. A seeker of medicine may have fasted and he documented the number of days fasted by the tally marks above the figure shown.

Boats are common motifs on Shield rock art. They can mean various things, like a boat representing the movement of spirits or shamans to other worlds. Often, they have a stick-like projection which is likely a torch employed in spearing fish at night.

This is possibly a bear which was a special animal to Algonkians. One Native person told an anthropologist that the spirit of a hunted bear would return to the Bear Manitou in a mountain. The tracks may signify a real or metaphorical journey.

This figure is a bird and it could relate to the legends about Oiseau Rock. The thunderbird was a powerful Manitou who would help people by driving away the bad Manitous of the earth and water.

These fish could be totems of the occupants. A totem is the emblem of a family, group or an individual.

Could this figure be a Non-Native missionary showing his Ablack robe? His head was lost to shifting rock.

Finally, this figure is a serpent. The serpent was believed to be in a struggle with the Thunderbird Spirit.

This sacred picture-writing represents a world-view and a belief in the Manitous which is complex. Albeit, for a non-Native person of Judaeo-Christian background, it is not his heritage but one that was closely linked to the land which we inhabit. Since it is in our backyard, we are compelled to protect ancient testimonies which enlighten us to the culture and spirituality of the First Peoples.

Oiseau Rock as a Recreational Sight

 In the mid-1900's, steamboats were the primary mode of travel, taking people and cargo up the River. The steamboat would leave Pembroke and make several stops, including one at Oiseau Rock, en route to Des Joachims. Often when the boat reached the face of the Rock, the captain would blow the whistle and the sound would echo off the face of the Rock. Since then, the Rock has been frequented by visitors in canoes, cruisers, sailboats, houseboats and now Sea-Doos. All come to look at this ancient rock and hike to the top. For some - no matter how young or old, will make it an annual event

The Rock has witnessed much. In ancient times, First Nation peoples made offerings to the rock and left their picture writing on the face of the rock; explorers and fur traders traveled and were later followed by the first settlers, loggers, and then the steamboats.

Across the river is Point au Bapteme, a sandy point of beach where voyageurs were immersed in the deep water as an initiation to their vocation. Ancient artifacts had been found there, too, indicating Native occupation of that site. Although one cannot now stop here since it is part of the Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, it is worth passing closely to glimpse this fine point of white sand.

Future of Oiseau Rock

Unfortunately, ignorant vandalism has covered many of the Native images on the rock face and severely degraded Oiseau Rock's appearance. It is hoped that the officials of the Quebec government will inspect the site for historical and ecological purposes since eagles nest on the rock. The property may receive a special designation - A protected lands - or it may become a regional park. Whatever will be done by the Quebec government must serve to protect the eagles, the pictographs, and the aesthetic beauty of Oiseau Rock.

In the meantime, the experts on pictographs advocate public education as a means to protect such this unique heritage. Regardless of the reasons why one may appreciate Oiseau Rock, all we ask it that people refrain from painting on the rocks and that they advise others not to do so. We have created a stewardship program "Friends of Oiseau Rock" to document and conserve the pictographs. Several artists, local residents, governmental officials, and wilderness guides have joined us in these efforts.

Removal of the graffiti is a costly, technical process and at this point, we do not know if it is feasible at Oiseau. In August 1998, two conservators from the Canadian Conservation Institute inspect the site to determine if the graffiti can be removed. Unfortunately, they found this site to be one of the worst cases of graffiti on a pictograph site. We are awaiting their report but they did stress that removal of all the graffiti would take several years. They do advocate an "all or nothing" removal of graffiti as its presence invites future graffiti.

A fund raising venture is in the works to provide some funds for the documentation and conservation of the pictographs on Oiseau Rock. Sharon Girdwood, an award-winning artist from Chalk River has drawn a limited edition print of Oiseau Rock. Sharon is an avid nature-lover, canoe guide, and a gifted artist. While on a canoe trip, she found a pictograph site and informed some archaeologists about this site. The site was named after her: "The Girdwood Site". A portion of the sales will be given for the conservation of the Oiseau Rock pictographs. This pencil drawing, entitled Visions of the Shield has the various legends about Oiseau hidden in an image of the rock.

Picture Framing Centre, Pembroke, Ontario (613) 732-1912
Custom Picture Framing & Art Gallery, Petawawa, Ontario
c/o Mike Kelly, (613) 687-5822

If you wish to contact "Friends of Oiseau Rock", call (613) 737-7796 or email at : magills@cyberus.ca

The print and art cards are available from the following:

Sharon Girdwood, Chalk River, Ontario (613) 589-2631
Friends of Oiseau Rock, c/o Joann McCann, Ottawa, Ontario (613) 737-7796
Amazon Voluptus, Chapeau, Quebec (819) 689-5798

Bibliography and for your further reading

Arsenault, Daniel, Ph.D. University Laval, Quebec. Correspondence and report awaiting publication.

Conway, Thor. Painted Dreams: Native American Rock Art.

Kennedy, Clyde. The Upper Ottawa Valley: A Glimpse of History. Renfrew County Council, Pembroke, Ontario, 1970.

Kennedy, Clyde. "Is Oiseau (Bird) Rock Endangered?" The Ottawa Archaeologist. May 1985, Vol. 12, No. 4

Legget, Robert. Ottawa Waterway: Gateway to a Continent. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ont., 1975.

Rajnovich, Grace. Reading Rock Art: Interpreting the Indian Rock Paintings of the Canadian Shield. Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto, 1994.

Tasse, Gilles. Premiers Reconnaissances. In Releves et Travaux Récents sur L'Art Rupeste Amerindien by Gilles Tasse and Selwyn Dewdney. Université de Québec à Montréal, Collection Paleo-Québec 8; 38-63.