| Summary: | East of Lake Winnipeg is what conservationists call the ‘east shore wilderness’ / ‘heart of the boreal.’ The largest contiguous tract of unindustrialized boreal forest on Earth, this area has been the focus of 15 years of discussion and planning in Manitoba. The area is also designated Waabanong Nakaygum, a homeland to the Anishinaabek of this bush-meets-lake region. Waabanong has seen limited access during the industrial period of personal mechanized mobility due to a lack of constructed all-weather roads. However, an older pattern of travel and mobility does exist across the land, for centuries constituting traditional Anishinaabek patterns of land use and trade. As all-weather roads are being constructed along Lake Winnipeg, oral interviews will examine the question: will the older trails remain in the collective culture of the people or shall the north-south cultural and economic flows replace the east-west bush history traced by the rivers that wind through?
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