By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com MATTAGAMI FIRST NATION – Sacred sites across Mattagami First Nation territory are being documented and protected through a new community-led project. The First Nation received a $51,300 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant. Resident Natasha Naveau, who spearheaded the initiative, said the project arose from both inspiration and urgency. Last summer, while canoeing with her sister, she visited a nearby pictographs and found evidence of a campfire disturbingly close to the drawings. “It just seemed a little too suspicious, like someone was trying to maybe vandalize the pictographs,” Naveau told TimminsToday. “That sparked the idea. These sites are part of our territory, Mattagami First Nation and Anishinawbe territory, but they’re not really protected.” The project will involve community-based and archival research into sacred and historically…
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