This book is more than a wildlife story, it is a thoughtfully constructed celebration of the grizzly bear, a skilfully realised visual 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 edenic 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 through the simple act of documenting the world in which these magnificent animals thrive.
A beautifully made book that steps outside what we have come to expect from wildlife publications, Voice of the Great Spirit features hand drawn calligraphy, diary-like notes and thoughtful observations brought to life by people who do not wish to disturb the landscape they are working within.
From the first page you travel the skies over the Inlet through to landing at Glendale Cove, moving gradually through the forest for a glimpse of the grizzly bear until you stand face to face with him on his own terms. A narrative that carries us along with the landscape, plant life and other animals who live in this part of the Canadian wilderness.
Here one may encounter the grizzly bear 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 our imagination - but as the clear voice of the great spirit.
'To open [the book] anywhere is to release a celebration of power, grace, intelligence, and individuality - the suite of survival traits that makes brown bears the natural wonders they are. And as you explore from cover to cover, you find yourself immersed ever more deeply in the untamed beauty of the landscapes the creatures call home. It is a story of life in a splendored place among a community of wild neighbors, and it comes straight and strong from the heart.'
Douglas H. Chadwick - biologist, conservator and author on Voice of the Great Spirit.
