Song for the Soul Catcher

It is 1984 and Ren's world is changing and out of her control, her closest relative is dying and she will be alone. A University of British Columbia graduate student, she is on her way to becoming an art history professor and author. Half Haida Aboriginal Native and half French Canadian, Ren is passionate about Pacific Northwest coast art, the environment and her Haida Heritage. As Ren finishes her last year of school she meets Zeff, a musician on tour in a British rock band. Brought together by art and music, they begin a year long relationship when his band settles in Vancouver to record their next album. In the spring, they make a trip to Haida Gwaii for her grandfather's potlatch. Zeff meets her aunts, uncles and cousins, family friends, even an old boyfriend. She takes him camping in the forest and he marvels at her knowledge of plants and trees. He has seen clear cuts in Canada from the air, it is very different seeing the devastation on the ground. He feels her helplessness and as if a dam has burst, on the trip home she unleashes an emotional outpouring of pent up frustration and anger about logging on Haida Gwaii.Ren's daily rhythm is stopped again when the record company cuts off the funding for the band and they are forced back to London. When necessity dictates, Zeff returns to his nomadic way of life and Ren must decide if she wants to join him or stay and fight for her homeland. Enriching the story are real events occurring in British Columbia, including the Lyell Island Logging Protest of November 1985, the National Train Caravan across Canada in the spring of 1986, the launch of the Lootaas, the Wave Eater Canoe at Expo 1986, and the creation of the South Moresby Reserve on Haida Gwaii in 1987. Interwoven in their daily lives are encounters with B.C. timber management, friends, enemies, alcoholism, hockey, soccer, Haida beliefs and the god of the ocean, the Orca.

Author: Janine Gregory

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Aug 31, 2014

Number of Pages: 306 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1501021109

ISBN-13: 9781501021107