Voice of the Great Spirit - The Grizzly Bears of Knight Inlet, B.C.
A book by Dave Campbell, Margaret Healion.
Published October 2011 by Pine Forest Press. ISBN: 9780956852007. Price: €30 / $40
Purchase directly online at VoiceOfTheGreatSpirit.com or the usual online book retailers. Also available in Avoca, Brown Thomas (Ireland) and selected book stores worldwide.
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This book is more than a wildlife story, it is a thoughtfully constructed celebration of the grizzly bear; a skilfully realised journey around one of the last surviving tracts of temperate rainforest on earth. A creative, poetic observation of life in Knight Inlet that is brim with rich and involving images of animal behaviour; wild landscapes and time spent in this corner of our fragile planet.
Travelling between spring and summer over an eight year period, the Irish photographer Dave Campbell has captured images that share something of this threatened landscape with you. He champions Knight Inlet as one of the few safe havens of the raincoast grizzly by simply documenting the world in which these magnificent animals live.
From the first page, you travel the skies over the inlet through to landing at Glendale Cove, moving gradually into the forest for a glimpse of the bear, until you stand face to face with him on his own terms. The narrative carries us along with the landscape, plant life and other animals living in this part of the Canadian wilderness.
Here one may encounter the grizzly as he truly is, as a much loved creature who stirs something in us. As the gentle playful bear; the fisher bear, the family bear – not as the aggressive bear of the imagination – but as the clear voice of the great spirit.
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Video shot by Eoin Holland (eoinholland.com)
Edited by Tom Speers (speers.ie)
With thanks to all at Knight Inlet Lodge, B.C. (knightinletlodge.com)
For more work by Dave Campbell, see DCP.ie
