Traditional Land Use Area

Marvin McDonald - Resources Information Officer for the Traditional Land Use Area

Marvin McDonald – Resources Information Officer for the Traditional Land Use Area

The natural resources and beauty that exists in traditional Anishinaabe territory was bestowed upon us by the Creator. For centuries, it provided us with our livelihoods, our identity and our dignity.

The arrival of settlers, hydro development and relocation have all affected our Nation in complicated ways. When our home was flooded in the 1950s by the government, it “gave” us an area of land now known as our Traditional Land Use Area.

Of course, we do not believe that any entity can bestow upon another the land given to us by the Creator, particularly an outside government to a Nation that already existed upon that land and called it home.

Nevertheless, the Wabaseemoong TLUA occupies 6,720 square kilometres along the Ontario-Manitoba border, north of Kenora, Ontario, Canada. It is about 60 kilometres wide and 120 kilometres long. The White Dog Parkway is in the southwest corner of the TLUA and provides the only road access, of about 50 kilometres. Beyond it, Caribou Falls is located at the junction of the English River and Winnipeg River systems, and extends hundreds of kilometres in all directions.

Learn more about the Wabaseemoong Traditional Land Use Area at win-tlua.ca.