It's a landscape that can have a profound effect on people, says Norm Hann. He is referring to the Great Bear Rainforest — 2 million hectares of pristine temperate rainforest on B.C.'s northwest coast.
For the expedition guide and Squamish resident, that entailed undertaking an extraordinary journey to raise awareness of the threats to the rainforest — travelling on his stand-up paddleboard for 400 kilometres along the proposed oil tanker route.
Rewind 12 years: Hann landed a job as a guide at King Pacific Lodge in the Great Bear Rainforest, and finding himself among kindred spirits and surrounded by the region's natural beauty, he says he was in his element.
"It seemed like that first year at the lodge," he says, "I was having all these epiphanies. I believe that once you get on the right path — your path — everything falls into place.
"The longer you work in an area like that and the more time that you spend with the First Nations people of that area, it really gets into your blood and it is a very powerful experience."
So when the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal came to light a few years ago, Hann says he immediately felt compelled to help the people and the wild places that would be affected.
Enbridge's proposed oil pipeline would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands to the ocean port of Kitimat. From there, 225 large oil tankers per year would transport more than 500,000 gallons of oil each through the treacherous waters and rich life of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Fast forward to May 2010, with a crowd gathered to send him off, Hann stepped foot on his 14-foot paddleboard and embarked on a 10-day, 400-kilometre expedition from Kitimat to Bella Bella, with a goal of documenting the people and places at risk along the way.
First Nations guides joined him throughout the journey, which Hann says made all the difference in terms of the depth of the experience.
"One of the reasons I wanted the First Nation to guide us is because they know the area super well," he says, noting that the local guides pointed out many traditional harvesting areas, pictographs and burial sites.
"They just brought the whole place alive," he said.
Hann embarked with a two-person support team — adventurer/photographer Brian Huntington and his sister, Shannon — but admitted that at the start, he really wasn't sure what to expect.
"As a guide working on the coast, my big concern was the weather."
He chose the month of May to link in with the First Nations tradition of harvesting seaweed during that time period. The process requires sun to dry out the seaweed, "which tells you that weather-wise it's one of the better months to go."
Blessed with ideal weather conditions and spending anywhere from five to 12 hours per day paddling, the group aimed set to travel 35 to 40 kilometres per day. They left Kitimat and visited the communities of Hartley Bay, Klemtu and Bella Bella, sleeping in cabins and camping out along the way.
In between, they visited many culturally significant sites to showcase First Nations history and connection with the land and sea, explained Hann.
The people on the coast were emphatically opposed to the oil tanker route, he noted, especially in light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster that was unfolding as the expedition took place.
At the end of the expedition, Hann gathered up the photos and video they had captured and placed it in the hands of filmmaker Taylor Fox.
"He captured the expedition the way we thought it should be captured," he said, adding that this was accomplished without the aid of a film crew.
Hann said he hopes the film will inspire people to speak out and to act. He feels that the final decision regarding the proposed pipeline will speak not only to the future of Great Bear Rainforest, but also to the direction Canada is taking on a larger environmental scale.
"I think what we need to be doing as Canadians, and on a world stage, is moving away from our dependence on oil," he said. "If we can use our oil reserves to help develop new, greener technologies, and move away from oil, that's a direction we need to be going. By taking a stand against the Northern Gateway project, we can actually be environmental leaders, instead of squandering and risking our precious natural resources."
The documentary, entitled StandUp4GreatBear, will be screened on Sunday (Jan. 22) at 7:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at Quest University. Entrance is by donation, with the proceeds benefiting the Great Bear Rainforest Youth Paddle, another awareness-raising campaign by Quest student Magdalena Angel to take place in June. For information, visit www.indiegogo.com/Great-Bear-Rainforest-Youth-Paddle.
