Sacred Bear Soaps
Long ago, when the earth was covered in ice, Raven - the creator - decided to change the earth to a beautiful green land. But as a reminder of when the world was pure and clean, covered with snow and ice, Raven went among the black bear people and turned every tenth bear white.
Raven promised that these unique bears would have unique powers: they would lead special people to special places and have the ability to dive deep in the ocean in search of fish.
Raven then set aside a rainforest home for the bears where he decreed that they would live forever in peace and harmony.
We recently received a wonderful shipment of Sacred Bear Soaps from Melanie and Kala Hooker (Mother and Daughter, Kala is expecting her third child any day now) of Telkwa, British Columbia.
Each bar is a beautiful oval, white handmade soap stamped with first nation artwork of a spirit bear looking at ursa major in the sky. They are packaged in canvas gift bags screened with the artwork and the spirit bear legend. Squamish Nation Artist Todd Baker designed the spirit bear image. 3% of the profit proceeds are donated to the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition for habitat protection of the Great Bear Rainforest.
A few years ago there was a good article about the Great Bear Rainforest by Kerry Banks in WestWorld Magazine:
…Great Bear Rainforest, a chunk of untamed terrain that extends 500 kilometres up the British Columbia coast, from Knight Inlet to the Alaskan panhandle. Covering an area greater than Switzerland and including more than 80 rivers, the Great Bear comprises one quarter of the planet’s last remaining ancient temperate rainforest. Sheltering some 230 bird species and 68 different mammals…
To learn more about the Great Bear Rainforest also visit the ‘Ghost Bear’ page at PBS.org.