Matawin

The Matawin flows east through forested hills to join the Saint-Maurice, one of its great tributaries. This watershed is part of the homeland of the Atikamekw, who call the Saint-Maurice Tapiskwan Sipi: its many tributaries meet the main river like threads passing through the eye of a needle. Atikamekw families hunted, fished and travelled through the basin long before a French trading post was established at Trois-Rivières in 1634. The Matawin's name, of Algonquian origin, evokes a meeting or rapid flow of waters.