The Anishinaabeg are a large group of Indigenous people that span all the way from Quebec right through to the Rocky Mountains all the way down to Oklahoma, and up through to Ottawa. The traditional Anishinaabeg way of life has historically been based on hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering, these activities according to the seasons. Today, there are nine communities of the Anishinaabe Nation in Quebec, from which 7 are in Abitibi-Témiscamingue: Wolf Lake, Kebaowek, Lac-Simon, Kitcisakik, Pikogan, Timiskaming, and Winneway. The other two, Barrier Lake and Kitigan Zibi, are in the Outaouais region.

The Anishinabeg are a majority who use Anishnabemowin, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Anishnabemowinis primarily a language passed down orally by elders and colourfully enriched by the creativity of each speaker. Anishinabemowin, as it existed at the time of the first contacts with the European settlers, was a very complex, vibrant, and sophisticated language, in perfect harmony with the natural world as it was known to the indigenous people of that time.It is astonishingly complex, as it's been passed down orally for over 8,000 years without a written alphabet. While the noun, adjective and adverb play a role in the Algonquin language, they are dwarfed by the verb, which is the very cornerstone of the language.

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