Guided by the bear, these Indigenous stewards are protecting their lands and cultures

Marven Robinson's archetypal brushwood with a tone carnivore was a spiritual moment. "It was astir similar my beingness flashed successful beforehand of me," helium said. 

On the acquisition of his Gitga'at hereditary main and grandfather-in-law, Chief Johnny Clifton, Robinson was showing a unit astir his homeland connected the B.C. seashore to assistance them find and movie the uncommon achromatic bear. 

"All of a abrupt … a large achromatic carnivore came walking retired and crossed the creek and went and caught a food close retired successful beforehand of us. I was lone 19 past and fundamentally it hooked maine and I've been doing that since."

Bears are spiritually important successful galore Indigenous cultures. The carnivore represents courageousness successful the Seven Sacred Laws, besides known arsenic the Seven Grandfather Teachings, which are shared by respective communities. Unreserved is exploring each of the 7 teachings successful this series, Sacred Seven. 

Robinson, besides known arsenic the "Spirit Bear Whisperer," has been a carnivore usher for much than 25 years. He introduces visitors and photographers to tone bears and coastal wolves done his institution Gitga'at Spirit Tours based successful Hartley Bay, B.C.

These uncommon achromatic carnivore variants, besides known arsenic Kermode bears, are revered by galore First Nations. Different legends explicate the bears' colouring. "One of the legends that goes backmost acold to glacial property is that the creator near 1 successful 10 achromatic bears white, conscionable to punctual america of the clean, pristine times erstwhile this world was covered with glaciers," Robinson said. 

The communicative reminds Robinson of his work to instrumentality attraction of the lands helium lives and works on. "We've been fortunate capable to stock our territory with this bear. And I deliberation it's taught america that we're lone sharing it. We don't ain the area, the bears, the wildlife that unrecorded there. We conscionable consciousness similar we're near to look aft and try and support the country the aforesaid mode it was erstwhile we recovered it."

Bear-led conservation 

Before his passing, Chief Johnny Clifton gave Robinson a work to instrumentality attraction of the tone bear. 

Robinson says his enactment arsenic a usher has helped him fulfil this responsibility, done nationalist consciousness and tourism. 

Until the 2010s, the Gitga'at radical kept their section tone bears a secret, for fearfulness of trophy hunting, helium says. But eventually, photographing the carnivore became a cardinal portion of protecting them — and the Gitga'at territory.  

Robinson recalls erstwhile the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline task was acceptable to tally done the Hartley Bay area. 

"[Photographer] Paul Nicklin was coming up to sprout immoderate worldly for the screen of National Geographic, and I had taken him retired to 1 of my peculiar places. I called it a nursery for the tone bears … and I was sitting with him erstwhile helium archetypal got to photograph 1 of the bears by a waterfall.

"'Marvin,' helium said, 'if you privation to prevention Gitga'at territory, you've got to commencement taking radical here, truthful they got to spot what we're seeing today.' And erstwhile National Geographic had the carnivore connected the cover, the feline was retired of the container and radical started coming. People wrote letters and managed to get the pipeline … stopped."

Robinson says the determination prevented irreparable biology harm to his homeland — acknowledgment successful portion to the tone bear.

Lessons from a bearskin 

On the other coast, a polar carnivore tegument is helping Vanessa Flowers sphere her Inuit culture.

When a huntsman successful her assemblage of Hopedale, Nunatsiavut, harvested a young antheral polar bear, Flowers reached retired to him to spot if she and her member Nicholas could observe him arsenic helium cleaned its skin. 

"He said, 'Actually, I'm trying to merchantability it conscionable arsenic it is. Do you privation to bargain it?' And we thought, 'You know, this is the cleanable accidental to learn.'"

The Flowers siblings are taste teachers. Together with different youth, they created the Inotsiavik Centre, an enactment connecting Inuit successful Nunatsiavut to their connection and culture. Last twelvemonth they won $1 cardinal to found the centre done the Arctic Inspiration Prize. 

The siblings are good practiced successful cleaning sealskins, but cleaning a polar carnivore was a new, overmuch bigger challenge. 

"Between my member and I, we started astatine 1 successful the day and we finished cleaning it astatine 7 I believe. I deliberation it was six oregon 7 hours cleaning it consecutive with a fewer breaks successful between…. It conscionable seemed similar it was ne'er ending."

When the going got tough, Flowers says she took inspiration from her precocious grandmother, who she had seen cleaning polar carnivore skins erstwhile she was a child. 

"When she got truthful overmuch older, she would archer the hunters, 'If you're gonna termination the bear, you gotta larn however to cleanable it yourself due to the fact that I'm getting old.' … And present they cleanable it themselves due to the fact that they learned from her. It's the passing connected of that knowledge…. It's important to transportation connected the traditions, due to the fact that if the carnivore is gonna beryllium killed, the tegument has to beryllium cleaned."

Now that the tegument is cleaned, it has to adust for respective weeks connected a frame. Once that process is done, Flowers wants the tegument to beryllium utilized for programming successful her community, arsenic a spot to beryllium successful a structure oregon an igloo. If she and her member cleanable a aboriginal carnivore skin, it volition beryllium utilized arsenic sewing worldly for her programme participants. 

She wants to recreate the warm, healing situation her grandma — known to immoderate arsenic Aunt Joy — ever made for others successful the community. "Somebody said it feels conscionable similar Aunt Joy's, and I was like, that's wherefore we're doing what we're doing, to springiness radical a consciousness of a homey feeling wherever they tin travel and beryllium themselves and unrecorded good … and sew and chat and laugh."

It each adds up to 1 extremity for Flowers: helping Inuit link to their identities and to each other. 

"You gotta cognize wherever you came from successful bid to cognize wherever you're going. I've ever said it's similar it's not learning thing new. It's reawakening what's already inside."

This communicative is portion of a bid from Unreserved called Sacred Seven. The bid explores the 7 ineffable teachings and introduces america to Indigenous Elders, cognition keepers and assemblage members who are putting those teachings into action.