When you walk into the foyer the unnatural light from older fixtures reflects on the shiny aluminum icons affixed to the dark orange wall.
The mural has more of a magenta undertone, leaning a little towards brown. There is a good reason for the background colour choice. The wall mural is expansive, it is an impactful art display but seemingly out of place. But this storyline will say not so.
There have been previous pictograph stories on the back roads including the Agawa (Lake Superior Provincial Park), Fairy Point (Missinaibi Lake – Chapleau), Wizard Lake-Gogama, Lake Obabika and Diamond Lake-Temagami) and Mameigwess Lake (Ignace).
This next set of ochre-coloured morphs suggest there was some cultural forward-thinking by settlers pre-Truth and Reconciliation.
Morphs
Pictographs are found across northern latitudes from mid-north Quebec through to Saskatchewan and throughout the world.
They have been recorded and studied and I reached out to my mentor Dr. Jonathan Pitt for some knowledge. He has lived on and off reserve and currently resides on the Nbisiing traditional territory of Nipissing First Nation in North Bay. Dr. Pitt has received multiple teaching awards during his career. He was a full-time faculty member in the Schulich School of Education.
He explained the spatial connection, “Lake Nipissing is at the very heart of the Anishinabek communities who reside on the lake, for the First People the understanding that the lake has a Spirit guides land governance through stewardship and reciprocity.
“When looking back through a Western science lens, archaeological evidence indicates that the First People have lived here at Lake Nipissing for nearly 9,500 years - some experts say even longer. When we think of the passage of time like a standard 30 cm ruler, First Nations have lived for many centimetres on that linear scale and with the advent of Europeans more recently in the 1600s could be measured in millimetres. Lake Nipissing/Nbisiing or “little water” meaning the water inland smaller than the Great Lakes system.
Mystery
A favourite set of pictographs to learn from is found in a narrow channel on the Upper French River, on the backside of Kennedy Island and next to Elliott (which is the correct spelling) Island.
The reason is that one of the only places settlers have celebrated these cultural icons is the main entry foyer of North Bay’s City Hall. See the pics. It is the city’s 100th anniversary in 2025, northern Ontario’s, next to the “Soo,” (1912) second oldest incorporated city.
Gord Young, Communications Officer for the City of North Bay said, "The art relief depicting the French River pictographs is one of the first things you see when entering city hall. Because of its early installation, none of our current employees have any knowledge about its origin beyond the accompanying description."
Sometimes it is dogged determination, time and patience, and a number of contact dots to solve a mystery. Detective-like work.
In the beginning, all I had to go on was a small plaque adjacent to the mural with four names going back almost forty-five years. What were their roles?
Wonderment. How did this come to pass?
The connection
Because of Colin Vezina, former long-time Editor at the North Bay Nugget a long-distance dot was connected to former, and well-known North Bay and area architect, Trevor Bywater.
Bywater was found in Normanville on the Fleurieu coast of South Australia.
“I settled in North Bay in November 1958 having immigrated from the UK. I took up a position with the architectural firm of Bill Gibson Architects. Bill was friendly with the Kennedy family and was in fact designing a new home for Bill and Noretta Kennedy, the owners of Keystone Lodge on the French River.
The Kennedy (W.K.P - pioneer-1887) family name is well known in North Bay – Kennedy Insurance (1912), the five-storey “Kennedy Building” (1966), John Kennedy Memorial Park (2004) and the W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery (1987).
“It was the following summer that Bill invited my wife and myself to spend a few days at the Lodge. Bill knew the river well and employed First Nation guides to ensure that guests were successful with their fishing rods.
“He had great knowledge of the river and its history. I vividly recall the time when he took us through the narrow channel and saw, for the first time the fading pictographs on the ice-smoothed face of the rock which projected from the dark and endlessly deep still water. We would visit the location a number of times over the following years.
Forward thinking
“The design and planning of the City Hall was taking shape in 1978 and a feature wall in the final location was evident on the sketch plans. However, it wasn’t until 1980 when the building was completed that the thought of recognizing the French River pictographs in the form of a mural was first considered.
As an architect during the early 1980’s he became involved in a number of First Nation projects in the Nipissing area. “I'm sure contributed to the evolution of my thoughts and the realization of an opportunity to give recognition to the contribution of the First Nation people in our new City Hall.
“I prepared drawings of the pictographs based on photographs and sketches and the proposal started to gain interest.
“During the design process, particularly with projects of this size and significance both for the community and myself, the process tends to become all-consuming. I'm sure that I passed my thoughts by a number of people at the time. One would have been Joel (Joel Truckenbrodt, one of the four cited on the overview). Both Joel and myself knew the site of the pictographs well in that we sailed the lake for many years.
“Joel was a principal with NGM, the firm that supplied windows and glass for the building. Joel's inventive and resourceful mind immediately expressed enthusiasm for the project. (Both of these companies still exist.) He enlisted the help of Tom Fraser, principal of LHD Ltd, North Bay. Tom purchased a sheet of one-inch thick aluminum and with the aid of a foreman, who was an ex-shop teacher, cut out and polished the various shapes. Joel's company completed the project by drilling and mounting the mural in accordance with my drawing.
Jim Redpath, president of J.S. Redpath Ltd. (1962), (well known in northern Ontario and global mining) financed the project. “At the time Jim was chairman of the arts acquisition committee for City Hall.” Redpath is known as an avid art collector at the gallery level and a Canadian art aficionado. Jim and Bobbi Redpath now live in St. Johns, Newfoundland, and the story was corroborated by Dave Hansman Senior Vice President of the Redpath Mining Inc.
Dewdney connection
Selywn Dewdney is known as the 'father of rock art.'
For years he travelled many thousands of miles by canoe to make the drawings of pictographs at more than one hundred sites, including the Kennedy Island site.
Dewdney is also known to have encouraged the famed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau to write Legends of My People The Great Ojibway (1965); edited by Dewdney.
Dewdney met the Kennedy brothers (Bill and John) on Kennedy Island during the summer of 1959.
On page 93 of Dewdney’s time-honoured research book Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes (with Kenneth Kidd) he says, “Sites #81 and #82 (nearby Gibraltor Rock) were recorded through the hospitality of John and Bill Kennedy… a bare half mile west of Keystone Lodge, is in clear, strong pigment…only the Thunderbird, turned on its side, is somewhat obscured by lichen..” Next to the pictographs a commemorative plaque was erected by the Kennedy family in 1961.
Pictographs
Back to Dr. Pitt. He said, “When we think about the time prior to Europeans and in the early years of contact, the First People had a rich Spiritual landscape and pictographs such as those on Kennedy Island are reminders of that landscape, as many morphs come from Spirituality, ceremony with the Spirit World and vision quests.
“In both the pictographs of the stone canvas on Kennedy Island and the representations of these same pictographs in the city hall building across the water in North Bay we see the Thunderbird clearly at the top which is deeply connected to Spirituality. As Indigenous Scholars have pointed out, Thunderbirds are powerful and frequent at a number of pictograph sites. Just below the Thunderbird, we can see a Mukwa in Anishnaabemowin (bear in English).
He helped explain the arrangement of the icons. “In close proximity to the Thunderbird are what looks like two canoes (one inverted). Below the Mukwa we see an Amik (beaver), closely connected with Nibi (water). Further below we see inini/ininiwag (man singular/plural) interconnected with asin (stone/rock).
“The pictographs on Lake Nipissing, such as those on Kennedy Island are in close proximity to Dokis First Nation. This particular site is significant as Spirituality and site selection itself are paramount. For example, having the wisdom to place these in more remote locations to protect and safeguard. Remember these are sacred places and often the rock itself plays a role in the chosen site, adding to the durability of the pictographs.”
Epilogue
These pictographs are featured on the recently released French River TVO documentary starting at the 32-minute mark.
See the map for directions. It is about 33 km between the original work of art and the copy. Cross Lake Nipissing by boat safely or launch at Dokis First Nation.
With the continuous beaming unnatural light, the ochre-like colour of the city hall mural has changed a little over the 45 years. The figurines are drawn to scale and are accurately oriented as per the cliff face. It is a work of art because of the foresight of a number of community members.
Sherlock Holmes might say this mystery is solved, “Excellent! I cried. 'Elementary,' said he.” The detective never said "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the stories by Conan Doyle. However, that phrase is often used, especially for this storytelling.
Trevor Bywater reflects. “I don't recall a dedication ceremony but I seem to remember that one did take place and that it did involve representatives of the First Nations. I hope that is not just wishful thinking and that it did happen.”
Maybe there will be a cultural ceremony the next time these pictographs of first peoples are honoured during the city’s 100th anniversary?
Pictographs contain stories the ones at North Bay’s City Hall can now be explained as to their origin. The original messages on the stone canvas remain culturally iconic as they should be.
