Totem – Toronto and BC – Map Monday

Submitted: 8th May 2026

Totem by Matthew Hall

Where are we going?

Totem is a tale of ruthless exploitation set in the rarely seen world of Canada’s First Nations people.

Totem locations on a map

The setting:

One of the characters has a high powered job and so needs to recuperate – she takes up a role mapping trees in the forest wilderness of British Columbia.

She engages Todd Samson, a First Nations man from the Three Valleys reserve as her guide to the landscape. He is on the front line of the struggle to save his community from ruthless developers.

Two people from two very different cultures – in one very unique place.

The author writes in his author note that he researched the book in the deep forests of the BC area. He was there to research a TV show but ended up getting the idea for a novel. He mentions that they came across skeletal remains of a teepee that had probably been there for years. He also says that “forest had never been managed and had existed as nature intended.”

The story takes place on the land of the First Nations people – and the author wanted to incorporate the art, culture and history of these people into a novel. Most importantly, he discovered the story, the traumatic story of the Residential homes and people sent there and later wanted to reconnect with his past and heritage.