Rapides-des-Joachims is a municipality and village in western Quebec, Canada, part of Pontiac County in the Outaouais region.

[5] The Joachims are sons of Michel Mathieu Brunet dit Lestang, colonist who arrived in New France on 20 August 1657.

However, both in Quebec and in Ontario, the name Swisha, Sweshaw, or Shesha Rapids has also long been used for this location as a map of 1790 indicates.

[6] In 1948, the construction of a dam and hydro-electric station began and the rapids which gave the town its name disappeared.

It adopted its present name of Rapides-des-Joachims, which had already been assigned to the post office created about 100 years earlier in 1853.

[6] The municipality covers a vast sparsely populated area characterized by boreal forest, lakes, and streams.

Since Rapides-des-Joachims provides access to vast tracts of wilderness, including ZEC Dumoine, it depends largely on the hunting and fishing business.