Rainy River First Nations’ residents are very much a thriving community today, but one of the things that draws visitors has been there for well over a hundred generations. More than 2,000 years before the Common Era, residents who lived in area villages at that time—the Laurel people, who were Ontario’s first civilization to use pottery—built burial monument mounds to honour their dead along the edge of Manidoo Ziibi. These mounds rise as high as four-storey buildings.

Photo: Mike Jacobs

“The people of Rainy River First Nations have always known it was their inherent responsibility to be caretakers of the burial mounds, from way before pre-contact to present day,” Hunter explains. “The Elders wanted to preserve, protect, and educate everyone about the history of the Burial Mounds.  The chosen way to do this was to build an Interpretive Centre. Here the people of Rainy River First Nations could share with everyone the meaning, the history, our culture, and the pride of the Place of the Long Rapids.”

Those who built the Mounds and their generations of descendants that have kept them up understood the importance of building in harmony with nature, allowing the site to continue in an interrelation with a natural landscape that has left its details undisturbed by time. Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung is not a museum—it is a continually evolving sacred community site to which the Rainy River First Nations are happy to invite visitors to explore and enjoy.

The hub of Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung is the Historical Centre itself, where visitors are introduced to the land, and to the culture of the Rainy River First Nations Ojibway who have always tended to it. 

“When the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre came to be, the people hoped to reach anyone and everyone who was interested in learning about our history,” says Hunter. “Today, we have had people from all over the world visit our centre.  We are humbled to teach them about our culture and our history.”

A visitor may choose to visit the Mounds and the 4 km of shoreline upon which they’re located, or they may also take in the 10 km of trails, on foot or on mountain bike. In winter months, the trails make for great skiing—or snowshoeing, as locals have always done.

In summer, the land itself is an attraction, but the creatures who live on it are also a draw. Especially the birds—the Place of the Long Rapids is a birders’ paradise, with its wetlands, mixed forest, and savannah offering a huge variety of sea and land birds alike.

Where the land and the culture of its stewards overlap is in the teachings of medicinal plants—while guests are asked not to pick plants from the land, they may learn as they walk about the traditional medicinal use of the many plants and flowers that grow abundantly throughout the area.

“Our Tour Guides share their teachings, knowledge in the many medicines that grow here, their own stories about living on our community or working here, and this gives each tour an unique experience,” Hunter says. “There are plants that grow here that are not found anywhere else.”

As interesting as the land are the people, and the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre offers one of the best introductions to the people of the Rainy Lake First Nations and their history through their Interpretive Centre. There, a combination of galleries, oral histories, and interactive displays introduce the Ojibway life and culture along Manidoo Ziibi, running from the present to the recent past and all the way to the beginnings of the history of civilization on this site several thousand years ago.

Photo: Mike Jacobs

The Rainy River First Nations Round House is also open to visitors. This nine-sided structure has an earthen floor connecting visitors to the earth and cedar poles indicating the four directions; it serves as a community house of learning, where traditions and knowledge are taught in traditional ways. The space plays a central role in the modern community, and newcomers are welcomed inside it through the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre.

Photo: Mike Jacobs

“We have so much to offer, it is very hard to pick one thing,” says Hunter, adding there is also a restaurant and an aquarium on site. “We hope people, when they leave here, come out with better understanding of the importance of the connection to the Burial Mounds and the land is to us. We educate people, as instructed by our elders, to teach everyone who walks through these doors how important the land is to us.”