Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at an old map drawn on birch bark by Ojijaak, an Anishinaabe elder, in 1932. It has since become a key piece of evidence for contemporary Anishinaabe people in a modern land rights claim. The map supports Anishinaabe land claims and challenges modernist assumptions about nature.

Paper long abstract:

In 1932, on one of seven extensive visits up the Berens River, American anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell met a man named Ojijaak (Crane) who became one of his most important acquaintances on the river. It was Ojijaak who provided Hallowell with much of the information which he later published in his monograph on the Midewiwin. Hallowell said in 1936 that although Ojijaak apparently never led the Midewiwin himself, "he is the only man on the river who, at present, would be capable of doing so" (2010:397). They seem to have developed an excellent relationship and one of the products of that relationship is a map, a birch bark scroll, and an accompanying text explaining the drawing. This 80 year old artefact of Hallowell's thoughtful and collaborative anthropological practice has since become a key piece of evidence for contemporary Anishinaabe people in the area. The map underlines their awareness of their place in the world and illustrates a sophisticated Anishinaabe understanding of land ownership and use value claims. They used it, in 2018, to argue successfully for UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape designation for their traditional territories - Pimachiowin Aki. This paper looks at the ways in which early Anishinaabe mapping practices and Anishinaabe ideas about primary relationships with the natural world challenge Modernist dichotomies of culture and nature. Ojijaak's map provides insight into old Anishinaabe ideas about the known world and uniquely Anishinaabe evidence in support of a modern Indigenous guardianship claim to a fragile boreal cultural landscape.