Esteemed players,

By now, some of you might already have enjoyed the journey of Johan Adrian Jacobsen. Our lovely adventurer (did I mention he kicked off his career as a whaler) had a rather stressful journey and yes, he did shoot a lot of animals and there was a lot of running around in forests. Jacobsen wasn’t exactly a quiet and understanding observer, that come to learn the traditions of the locals, these were different times, where men with beards would explore the white parts of the map and return with treasures. In that respect we can blame him that Totem’s Sound isn’t exacty an educational experience and we certainly didn’t have the appropriate ressources to make this into a 15 hour deep dive into the rich cultures of the American North-West.

Which is a true pity, since this is a truely wonderful region, not only because it inspired people to get tribal tattoos in the mid-90ties, but because it has a marvellous culture with incredible achievements in the arts. During the 19th century this culture was at the brink of extinction, when the White Man decided, that it’s time to call people Miller and Smith, put them in European garment and ban the old rites like the Potlatch. Thanks to the Raven and the Wolf, that the First Nations managed to re-claim their culture and at least parts of their territories, and that they managed to bring back their cultures to life.

I’m not an ethnologist, so I lack the capacity to tell of the marvels, that one can find, when visiting the Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw or Haida. If you can, do visit, if you don’t leave nearby, then watch this marvellous documentary, that David Attenborough made a few decades ago: http://youtu.be/lB_xBUgexoY It’s another tale of a white man coming to the American North-West, but this time, there’s no shooting involved.