Rock Art Sites
Indigenous History and Knowledge Libraries on the Land in Canada

This database and map of rock art sites is a record of and testimony to Indigenous people’s links to the land across thousands of years. There are over 4,000 known rock art sites in Canada. This database and map lists over 1,200 sites discussed in academic articles and books.

The map of rock art sites shows a regional area for each rock art site. None of the locations on the map are exact, and the rock art sites cannot be located by using this map. Some rock art sites are well known and are in protected provincial park areas, most are in very remote locations and are not accessible to the general public.

I hope that from this database and map people will be made aware of the deep history of Indigenous people on the land, and Indigenous knowledge held on the land. I hope that students will become more familiar with what has remained often undiscussed in educational institutions, the history and evidence for Indigenous peoples links to the land across time, and Indigenous libraries of knowledge, history, and science on the land.

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Students are taught about the famous rock art sites in Europe but they are not often if ever made aware of the thousands of beautiful rock art sites in North and South America. Some scholars have argued that there are more rock art sites in North and South America than in the rest of the world. This research was supported by a Canada SHHRC CRC Tier II Indigenous History Healing and Reconciliation Grant CRC-2018-00266.