Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

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(21 August 1954–)

 

With his unique style, Michael Thomas Nicoll Yahgulanaas has produced graphic books and comics on topics ranging from Haida sovereignty over Haida Gwaii, protection of the sustainability of the unique flora and fauna of Haida Gwaii, and historical and cultural aspects of the Haida Nation. Through his graphic novels and comics, Yahgulanaas has developed what he calls Haida Manga, his own interpretation of traditional Haida art blended with Japanese manga, rendering ancient Haida narratives in a contemporary artistic form. Yahgulanaas attributes his ecological concern to the teachings of Haida culture and employs humour to allow his message to have the greatest impact. His works address recurring themes of human survival, human kindness, ecological health, Haida and Indigenous sovereignty, and identity. His stories are both parabolic and didactic.

Yahgulanaas was born in Masset, British Columbia, a small community of less than one thousand people. Of Scottish and Haida ancestry—the Raven clan—he has adorned his Haida lineage as his last name. Born and raised on Haida Gwaii, Yahgulanaas observed first-hand how Haida ancestral lands and waters were subjected to exploitation, and concern for the environment provided him intentional focus. He first began to address what he saw in the form of cartoons. With no formal training, he began to create and draw his own version of the Haida trickster, Yehl, but with a modern twist.

Yahgulanaas attended elementary school in Masset but, because there was no junior or high school in Masset, had to move to Prince Rupert on British Columbia’s mainland to continue his schooling. Education in Prince Rupert is a very arduous process for those coming from Masset. Even with lots of family in the city, achieving graduation is a difficult undertaking for First Nations students. Ever evasive, Yahgulanaas is playful about whether he actually graduated from high school. At the time he was in school, the graduation rate for Indigenous students was less than fifty per cent. In his evasion of my question, “Did you graduate from high school?,” he responded, “There is some question as to whether or not I did complete high school” (see also Watson and Gooderham 7). While Yahgulanaas was in grade eleven, a well-liked, unconventional teacher was fired. That sparked the activist in Yahgulanaas. He spoke at the school board meeting in support of the teacher, and that speech resulted in the non-renewal of the contracts for the vice-principal, the principal, and the district superintendent. For First Nations students at the time, school focused on preparing them to work in the two main industries of Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert: fishing and logging. Both provided a decent living without needing much formal education. While both paid well and offered quick money, they were seasonal and physically very demanding.

Continuing his education, Yahgulanaas studied for one year at the University of British Columbia and was particularly focused on a nine-credit art class. After submitting one assignment, he received praise from three professors. But that made him so suspicious about their credibility that he did not continue his formal education. He credits much of his training to time spent with the Haida artist Robert Davidson, a great-grandson of the famous artist Charles Edenshaw. Davidson had moved to Vancouver to complete high school and that is where he met Bill Reid, the most prominent Haida artist at the time—perhaps the most prominent to date. For eighteen months, Reid instructed Davidson on Haida sculpture and design. Davidson then had that same impact on Yahgulanaas in his development as an artist back on Haida Gwaii. At this time, Yahgulanaas began focusing on the flora and fauna of Haida Gwaii from an activist perspective. The most prominent industry was logging, which, unhindered, was harvesting forests that included some of the oldest and biggest trees in Canada. Yahgulanaas began questioning the industry’s unimpeded access and deforestation of Haida Gwaii. His questioning came not only through his voice, but also through cartoons published in local newsletters and other island publications.

With John Broadhead, in 1977 Yahgulanaas published two volumes of Tales of Raven, each addressing very important aspects of Haida culture and legacies. In the first, No Tankers, T’anks, Yahgulanaas revealed the imminent danger both to the waters and forests of Haida Gwaii. The crude oil supertankers and their toxic cargo were serious threats to the delicate coastal ecology and to the islands’ forests and other natural resources. Moreover, Haida Gwaii was never ceded to any government, nationally or provincially; it was simply subsumed when British Columbia became a province of Canada in 1871. However, the 1763 Royal Proclamation retained precedent, and it stated clearly that unless a nation ceded its territory, it maintained its rights of sovereignty. The fact that Haida Gwaii is unceded territory became prominent in 1985, a critical turning point in Yahgulanaas’ activism. His next comic, Mutants of the Pit, focused on mercury poisoning and its potentially destructive impact on Haida Gwaii. Through the comic, Yahgulanaas sought to educate his community about the issues at hand, as well as to express resistance to foreign economic interest in Masset Harbour and Yakoun Lake. For Yahgulanaas, anyone and any company that were not Haida were considered “foreign.”

The turning point for Yahgulanaas in his art and writing occurred as he transitioned to Rocking Raven, an original website that featured his cartoons and comics. At that time, he began to ponder a fusion of Haida art with the art of Japanese manga. He consulted with fluent Haida Elders and Haida language experts to see if “manga” was already a word in the Haida lexicon, and upon finding that the term did not exist, he began calling his creations “Haida Manga.” He also studied with Cai Ben Kwon, a Chinese brush artist. This was an important transitional point in Yahgulanaas’ work because it opened a new market for his creations in Asia, especially in Japan and South Korea.

Yahgulanaas’ first book, A Tale of Two Shamans, published in 2001, reflects his love for historical Haida narratives. A version of this story is one of many narratives that linguist John Swanton recorded at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. Influential German American anthropologist Franz Boas commissioned linguists to record as much of Native American language as they could because he thought these languages would not survive into the twentieth century. Boas’ student Swanton learned and documented all three dialects of the Haida language, and the tale of two shamans was one he recorded in all three dialects, though not verbatim. Yahgulanaas explains at the beginning of his book,

The English version of the story has a much simpler origin story; I read and absorbed the three versions . . . and then retold it in a way that made the most sense to me. Stories can be told in many different ways. Some are recognizable as myth, history, and parable. And like everything else in this amazing world, they change. What doesn’t change is how stories must serve a purpose for the living. A story without a purpose vanishes. This story has not vanished. Even though it was scattered like ourselves during these hard times of terrible troubles, it is still here. Therefore it has a purpose.

Yahgulanaas dedicated this book to all those who commit themselves to language revitalization.

Yahgulanaas’ Tale of Two Shamans follows two shamans who move from one place to another. Along the way, one of them kills a sea otter, but neither of them skins the otter properly. One then urinates on the skin, and then the other asks for the skin. When he touches it, the spirit of the otter enters him, and three days later he dies. While the remaining Elder mourns the loss of his companion, four invaders land in a canoe and steal the skin of the dead Elder, putting it in a box as they depart. The living Elder follows them and gets into the canoe with them, but they cannot see him. He spots a growth under the arms of each of the invaders. When he squeezes each growth, they are incapacitated, especially the biggest invader. Once they arrive at their village, ten other shamans are unable to heal them and must call on the female spirit named Dangers to Offend. She manifests and sees the living Elder among them. She understands his situation and allows him to gather the box with his friend, but also gives him power to heal those who stole his friend’s skin, whom she afflicted with a disease. They would only be healed if they called on the shaman, but they did not. On the way back to his own village, as the story ends, his friend is restored to life.

In his next publication, The Last Voyage of the Black Ship (2002), Yahgulanaas addresses the excessive logging of forests on Haida Gwaii. He highlights its impact on both the land and the water. The black ship mentioned in the book’s title is the vessel that comes into Haida waters where foreign companies denude large areas of land. Upon departure, the vessel endangers the water. This book offers both a protest of and resistance to the destruction of Haida forests, which Yahgulanaas experienced firsthand in 1985, when he and other protesters tried to halt logging operations on Haida Gwaii. Their motivations were twofold: Haida had never signed any treaty and they sought to reinstate their sovereignty; thus, they were both protecting their homeland and seeking recognition of their sovereignty. Although Yahgulanaas and the other protesters peacefully blockaded the roads to the forest, they were arrested. Their protests gained attention worldwide and, as a result, all charges were dropped and the Canadian government brokered a compromise: While it did not actually recognize Haida sovereignty, it offered to turn the land into a national park under government control and to require that any further logging on the islands be in consultation with Haida leadership. Even though this graphic novel about the issue was for children, Yahgulanaas’ message is for all ages, because everyone is responsible for the planet’s well-being.

Yahgulanaas’ next book, Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment (2008), propelled him to international fame. Flight of the Hummingbird is about a destructive forest fire and its impact on the animals and birds that live in the forest. It describes the creatures’ great fear and the destruction that the fire wreaks upon the environment. The hummingbird is different because, of all the creatures, it is the only one that tries to stop the fire by filling its beak with water and then going back and forth, dropping each beakful of water on the fire. All the animals are astonished at this effort and finally they ask, “Hummingbird, what are you doing?” The question bespeaks the seemingly daunting task of putting the fire out, but Hummingbird’s response is the book’s parabolic message about one’s impact on the world: “I’m doing what I can.” The Dalai Lama’s foreword to the book extolls the message of the responsibility we all have, saying that we must all do what we can to honour the Earth; saving the environment is everyone’s responsibility. In 2020, a revised version released as The Little Hummingbird updated the final sentence of the book. The hummingbird’s answer has been revised to show greater responsibility to the environment: “I’m doing everything I can.”

With the release of Red in 2009, Yahgulanaas contemporized a classic oral narrative about a brother and sister living in a small village called Kiokaathlii. Not having any other family, the two are very protective of one another. The story begins with a twist on both classical and modern story openings: “Once upon a time this was a true story.” Yahgulanaas has explained that this beginning allows him to retell the story, not with the authority of the original storytellers, but with his own interpretation and emphasis. The siblings are separated when a raiding party from another island comes and kidnaps Red’s sister, Jaada (Masset Haida term for “girl”). Red vows revenge and eventually becomes the leader of the village. With the assistance of a weapons maker and carpenter, he builds a canoe that can fly; he also builds a submarine in the shape of a killer whale, in which he seeks his sister. When he finds the village, he tries to get her back, but in the ensuing fracas, he chops off her husband’s head and takes it with him. Back in his own village, he repeatedly ignores the counsel of the Elders, until one warns, “Red, it’s time to end this fighting. Allow me to give you a gift. A great bow. It will last you all of your days.” Red agrees and responds, “Fine. I shall end this.” He takes the bow and shoots an arrow into the sky and then lies down on the spot where it is going to land. The arrow then lands in Red’s heart. The residents of both villages then make peace with each other.

Old Growth (2012) collects early work by Yahgulanaas to show his development as both an artist and ecological activist. The editor, Liz Park, shows how Yahgulanaas’ archives reveal his humble aesthetic at the start of his career, when he was drawing only single-frame cartoons addressing issues of the environment, logging, marine pollution, and Haida sovereignty, largely published in local newsletters such as Spruce Roots. The cartoons do not have the manga influence yet, but Yahgulanaas’ signature sarcasm is present from the start. For example, a 1977 cartoon included in Old Growth shows an investor slyly handing cash to a politician wearing blinders, who says he cannot see a reason why the pipeline should not happen but that a couple of thousand dollars can justify why it should. As Yahgulanaas grew as an artist, he began to exhibit in his depictions of humans, flora, and fauna more traditional Haida influences, which he credits to Davidson. This mentorship begins to shift Yahgulanaas’ depictions to a more traditional Haida aesthetic, but with contemporary commentary.

Another chapter, originally published in 1985 as Tree Spirits, is a comic recasting of an ancient Masset story and evinces more traditional Haida art influences. The story captures both a traditional game and an old characteristic of greed in the village of Kungielan. While local people are playing a game with a wooden ball, a stranger joins in and impresses everyone with his skills. A jealous player then hits him on the head with a rock, causing him to stop playing. A red feather appears and captures everyone’s attention, and when one woman touches the feather, she begins to fly. One by one, the villagers try to grab her until only one woman is left alone in the village because she did not try to stop the others from flying. Pregnant, she gives birth, and then raises her child, who becomes a strong young man. When she tells him the tale of the red feather, she warns him against touching it. She also teaches him to play the ball game. One day during a game, the red feather appears and the young man, despite his mother’s many warnings, touches the feather and begins to fly and learns to control his flight. Wanting to see his mother, he loses control as he is flying and plunges to the ground. He becomes the source of all the trees of Haida Gwaii as his roots spread throughout the land.

In 2019, Yahgulanaas published a prequel to Red called Carpe Fin. In this tale, Carpe returns to his village after a lengthy absence. A barge en route to Alaska has run ashore and devastated food sources both in the ocean and on the beach. Carpe recalls a location with abundant sea lions but needs a crew of men to row an old canoe there. On the island, Carpe shoots a female sea lion, but a ruckus ensues, causing everyone to leave the island except Carpe. Carpe then finds himself in another world where animals put him on trial for killing their women. He defends himself by explaining he did so to feed his children. A killer whale, impressed with his answer, then orders a feast, where Carpe is sewn inside a sea lion skin and thrown into the water. He drifts back to his village and, once on shore, gets out of the skin by hitting himself four times, but when he emerges, he is invisible.

Conceiving a means for his village’s prosperity, Carpe realizes that his ideas would only perpetuate the ecological disaster that has already occurred. The killer whale, Skaanaa, then appears, and Carpe orders it to go catch fish and bring them back to the village, which then prospers. The lesson is for everyone to help each other and to share food and recipes. Seeing their harmony, Carpe then commands Skaanaa to bring him back to Lord’s Rock, the portal to the supernatural world. The book, while depicting the horrors of ecological disasters, real and potential, offers hope by blending traditional ways into contemporary life.

Yahgulanaas’ most recent publication is JAJ (2023). The book is also a mural, similar to Red (2009), in which all the pages can be assembled into one large image. The title comes from the initials of one of the principal characters, Johan Adrian Jacobsen, an untrained cultural collector from Germany; Yahgulanaas notes that jaj is also a Hindi word meaning “discernment.” The story, based on historical events, recounts the 1882 voyages of one of Yahgulanaas’ unnamed great-great-grandfathers with Jacobsen, who travelled to Haida Gwaii to collect Haida relics for a German museum. Jacobsen, one of the earliest Europeans on Haida Gwaii, sought artifacts to document first contact, the recent smallpox epidemic that had occurred in the early 1860s and its desolation upon the Haida, and the ensuing relocation of Haida smallpox survivors and the succeeding European population of Haida Gwaii. The story explores fragile relationships between the Haida and Europeans during a difficult period of tension, recovery, and rebuilding.

According to Yahgulanaas’ website, his Haida Manga has expanded to “large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, ceramics and illustrated publications.” Yahgulanaas remains hopeful for humanity and believes the wisdom from Haida culture is beneficial to the world. He continues to be an artist, ambassador, philosopher, and champion for humanity and the Earth.

Bibliography

Manga

A Tale of Two Shamans. Theytus Books and Haida Gwaii Museum, 2001; Locarno Press, 2019.

The Last Voyage of the Black Ship. Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Tales of Raven, 2002.

Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment. Greystone Books, 2008; Douglas & McIntyre, 2009.

Old Growth. Edited by Liz Park, Simply Read Books, 2012.

Red: A Haida Manga. Douglas & McIntyre, 2009, 2014.

The Little Hummingbird. Greystone Books, 2010; Greystone Kids Illustrated Edition, 2020.

War of the Blink: A Haida Manga. Locarno Press, 2017.

Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga. Douglas & McIntyre, 2019.

JAJ: A Haida Manga. Douglas & McIntyre, 2023.

 

Comics

No Tankers, T’anks, by Yahgulanaas and John Broadhead. Vol. 1 of Tales of Raven, Island Protection Society, 1977.

Mutants of the Pit, by Yahgulanaas and John Broadhead. Vol. 2 of Tales of Raven, Island Protection Society, 1977.

 

Translations

Le vol du colibri: D’après une légende amérindienne. Translated by Richard Desjardins, Éditions du Boréal, 2008.

Red: Un manga Haïda. Translated by Marc Fournier, Pacifique Nord-Ouest, 2020.

 

Other

The Canoe He Called Loo Taas, by Yahgulanaas and Amanda Reid-Stevens. Benjamin Brown Books, 2010.

Declaration of Interdependence: A Pledge to Planet Earth, by Yahgulanaas, Tara Cullis, and David Suzuki. Greystone Books, 2010.

Yahgulanaas, Michael. “The Front.” BC Studies, no. 198, summer 2018, p. 5.

 

Interviews

“Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas Interview.” The Joe Shuster Awards: Canadian Comic Awards, News, and Links, 4 Sept. 2009, https://joeshusterawards.com/2009/04/09/michael-nicoll-yahgulanaasinterview.

Hirose, Alyssa. “Author Q&A: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Haida Manga Writer.” Vancouver Magazine, 22 Oct. 2019, https://vanmag.com/city/arts-andculture/author-qa-michael-nicoll-yahgulanaas-haida-manga-writer.

“Why Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas Doesn’t Get Caught Up in the Search for Perfect.” The Next Chapter, CBC Radio, 26 June 2020, https://cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-june-27-2020-1.5627940/whymichael-nicoll-yahgulanaas-doesn-t-get-caught-up-in-the-search-for-perfect-1.5627980.

 

Further Reading

Gray, Brenna Clarke. “Border Studies in the Gutter: Canadian Comics and Structural Borders.” Canadian Literature, no. 228/229, spring/summer 2016, pp. 170–87, https://doi.org/10.14288/cl.v0i228-9.187581.

Green, Christopher. “Fluid Frames: The Hybrid Art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.” Art in America, 2 Nov. 2017, https://artnews.com/art-in-america/features/fluidframes-the-hybrid-art-of-michael-nicoll-yahgulanaas-60076.

Lederman, Marsha. “Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas Seeks Solutions to Environmental Mayhem in New Work Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga.” Globe and Mail, 26 Nov. 2019, https://theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-michael-nicollyahgulanaas-seeks-solutions-to-environmental-mayhem-in.

Levell, Nicola. “Site-Specificity and Dislocation: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and His Haida Manga Meddling.” Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 93–116.

Martin, Deborah G. “Patterns and trends of University Achievement of Indian Graduates.” Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Research Branch, 1983.

Nodelman, Perry. “Picture Book Guy Looks at Comics: Structural Differences in Two Kinds of Visual Narrative.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 4, winter 2012, pp. 436–44.

Spiers, Mariam Brown. “Creating a Haida Manga: The Formline of Social Responsibility in Red.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 26, no. 3, fall 2014, pp. 41–61.

Works Cited

Watson, Kenneth, and Gooderham, Kent. “Study of the Quality of Education of First Nations’ People: Final Report.” Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 1984.

White, Frederick. “Re: catching update,” email correspondence with the author, 2 Sept. 2022.

 

Frederick White teaches linguistics, composition, and literature in the English Department at Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania). His research explores and examines Indigenous sovereignty, cultures, history, education, identity, literature, language revitalization, and oral literature, with a focus on his Haida culture. His creative writing includes poetry, drama, and fiction, including an award from Native Writing Circle of the Americas for prose.