Background
Pimachiowin Aki, The Land That Gives Life, is a landscape of rivers, lakes, wetlands and boreal forest, part of the ancestral home of the Anishinaabeg, who live from fishing, hunting and gathering. UNESCO says it takes in the traditional lands of four communities, Bloodvein River, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi and Poplar River, and is an exceptional example of the tradition of Ji-ganawendamang Gidakiiminaan, keeping the land: a network of livelihood, habitation, travel and ceremonial sites linked by waterways.
The site of more than 29,000 km² spans Manitoba and Ontario and includes Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park and Woodland Caribou Provincial Park; it grew from an accord signed by the First Nations in 2002 and was inscribed in 2018. Wikivoyage says there is no road into Atikaki, that the usual water route starts at Wallace Lake, 250 km from Winnipeg, and that Woodland Caribou, reached from Red Lake, has almost 2,000 km of canoe routes used by only about a thousand paddlers a year.
- 3 billion years agoSome of Canada's oldest rock forms in Atikaki
- 2002The Protected Areas and First Nation Resource Stewardship Accord is signed
- 2004Added to Canada's tentative list
- 2018Inscribed as World Heritage
Find Your Way Around
The main parts of the site, in the order most visitors see them
- 1The Bloodvein RiverThe river of one of the four communities, running west to Lake Winnipeg.
- 2Woodland Caribou Canoe RoutesAlmost 2,000 km of maintained routes in the Ontario park.
- 3The PictographsRock paintings throughout Woodland Caribou, to be treated with respect.
- 4AtikakiThe Manitoba wilderness park of black spruce, jack pine and poplar.
- 5The Four CommunitiesBloodvein River, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi and Poplar River.
Know Before You Go
From Wikivoyage and the GoGo guides
Into the Boreal
Not yet in a GoGo guide
- 08:00Paddle in from Wallace Lake8 hrsThe first day on the water into Atikaki.
Best Time to Visit
Best months: Jun–Aug. Freezing days in Nov–Mar.
Typical highs
Climate: NASA POWER