Cottager bids to save ancient pictographs from graffiti vandals

A woman who owns a cottage near a cliff famous for its centuries-old pictographs is trying to save the historic drawings from being buried under layers of spray paint.

Joann McCann said she doesn't think the vandals realize the damage they're causing to the ochre First Nation pictographs on Oiseau Rock, an imposing wall of granite that rears out of the Ottawa River near Sheenboro, Que., about 150 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

"Well, first they're desecrating a sacred site, and secondly they're destroying what is a non-renewable cultural resource," she said while visiting the cliff by boat with members of the Ottawa Riverkeeper, a conservation group that wants to help her protect the site.

At 150 metres in height, the cliff, which is named after the falcons that nest there, is a prominent landmark taller than any building in the National Capital Region and one of the tallest cliffs along the river's banks. Its summit offers a panoramic view of the river, and it was a place of strategic and spiritual importance to local First Nations. Archeologists believe that is why they used the rock face to depict so many of their stories.

On a recent visit by boat, McCann gasped at the sight of people's first names scrawled in large round black, white, red and yellow spray-painted letters.

"That's all new since the last time we were here," said her husband Glenn Magill.

"What a shame," McCann added.

'They're desecrating a sacred site and ... they're destroying what is a non-renewable cultural resource.' — Joann McCann

McCann is trying to document the pictographs before they're completely obscured. Next spring she plans to erect signs on the cliff face providing a history of Oiseau Rock and its pictographs in the hope that it will help people better understand the significance of the site and inspire their respect.

She pointed out the shapes of an arch and what may once have been a canoe, now buried under the words "Jimmy" and "Carolyn."

Another figure is nicknamed "the missionary" because it resembles a man wearing a black robe worn by French Jesuits.

McCann said it was described by the first archeologist who came to the site in 1977.

First graffiti in 1930s

She recounted that in the 1800s, tourists came up the river by steamboat to see the rock and climb to the top of the cliff.

But now it no longer draws the sightseers that it once did.

The first graffiti appeared in the 1930s, scrawled in paint that didn't last. The newest graffiti, including some believed to have been applied in August, uses spray paint made up of very fine droplets that get into the pores of the rock, McCann said, adding that it is very expensive to remove.

The cliff is technically owned by the province of Quebec, but neither the government nor the local municipality have so far taken a leadership role in protecting it.

Delphine Hasle, who is in charge of outreach for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, said she is confident McCann's work will make a difference.

"Because people are not well-educated, they don't know what they are missing and what they are messing with," she said. "It's really sad to see that, but hopefully more people will know about it soon and take care of the rock. It needs our protection."