Haida

“The ragged edges of the temperate rainforest reach far out onto an island in the western seas. It is a place where one chooses to go ahead or turn back…” 

In a prequel to the award-winning Red: A Haida Manga, acclaimed artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas blends Asian manhwa/manga with the Haida artistic and oral tradition in another stunning hand-painted volume. 

In a small near-future community perched between the ocean and the northern temperate rainforest, a series of disasters is taking a heavy toll. It is early fall and a fuel spill has contaminated the marine foods the village was preparing to harvest. As food supplies dwindle, a small group decides to make a late-season expedition to search for sea lions. Surprised by a ferocious storm, they abandon one man, Carpe, on an isolated rock at sea. After ten days they are finally able to return, but he has vanished. The story follows Carpe’s encounters with the Lord of the Rock, who demands retribution for Carpe’s role in the hunt, and Carpe’s fate in the half-life between human and animal, life and death.

Educator & Series Information
Haida manga is a contemporary style of Haida comics and print cartoons that explores the elements of both traditional North Pacific Indigenous arts and narrative, while also adapting contemporary techniques of artistic design from the western portion of the North Pacific, namely the Japanese manga from which its name derives.

Additional Information
120 pages | 10.00" x 10.00" | 100 colour illustrations

Take a journey into the heart of Haida culture as it is lived and experienced by an extraordinary woman of the Tsath Lanas Eagle Clan. Pansy Collison, a Haida woman born and raised in Old Massett on Haida Gwaii, tells stories of her clan and community, as well as personal narratives about her history and family. Haida Eagle Treasures embodies a strong Haida woman’s voice, offering a rare glimpse inside Haida culture. Each story and memory is a treasure that captures part of the beauty of the Haida worldview and way of life.

Now retired, Pansy taught for 23 years at elementary, secondary, and college levels. From these experiences, she describes some of the challenges and contradictions of living between two worlds. Pansy’s teaching skills, artistic talents, and political affiliations keep her involved in politics and education on Haida Gwaii.

Thirteen original illustrations by Pansy’s brother, Paul White, a gifted artist, teacher, pole carver and designer, provide the guideposts within Haida Eagle Treasures.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 8-12 for English Language Arts and Social Studies.

Caution: use of the term "Native" throughout.

Additional Information
244 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"  | 2nd Edition

In 1970, twenty-two-year-old Thom Henley left Michigan and drifted around the northwest coast, getting by on odd jobs and advice from even odder characters. He rode the rails, built a squatter shack on a beach, came to be known as "Huckleberry" and embarked on adventures along the West Coast and abroad that, just like his Mark Twain namesake, situated him in all the right and wrong places at all the right and wrong times. Eventually, a hippie named Stormy directed him to Haida Gwaii where, upon arrival, a Haida Elder affirmed to the perplexed Huckleberry that she had been expecting him. From that point onward, Henley's life unfolded as if destiny were at work--perhaps with a little help from Raven, the legendary trickster.

While kayaking the remote area around South Moresby Island, Henley was struck by the clear-cut logging and desecration of ancient Haida village sites. Henley collaborated with the Haida for the next fourteen years to spearhead the largest environmental campaign in Canadian history and the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park. Later, he became a co-founder of Rediscovery--a wilderness program for First Nations and non-aboriginal youth that would become a global model for reconciliation.

Henley's story is peppered with a cast of unlikely characters serendipitously drawn together, such as the time he hosted then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and entourage, including five-year-old Justin Trudeau, at his remote driftwood hippie hut (the visit was unanticipated and at the time the helicopter touched down, Henley and a friend were doing laundry). Over and over, Henley found himself at the epicentre of significant events that included a historic train caravan across Canada, an epic Haida canoe voyage, an indigenous rights campaign world tour for the Penan tribespeople of Borneo, as well as two global disasters--the 2004 South Asian tsunami and the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Beautifully recounted with passion, humour and humility, Raven Walks around the World is a moving and thoughtful account of a life lived in harmony with the land and community.

Educator Information
Recommended resource for grades 10-12 for these subject areas: Contemporary Indigenous Studies, English Studies, Environmental Science, Literary Studies, BC First Peoples

Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Canoe Kids Vol. 2 The Haida is the second issue of a 24 edition series designed as family books for kids all ages. This eight-year project will see the Canoe Kids Team embed with 24 Peoples the publication designed as a family book for kids all ages. The mandate for the full-colour book (197 full colour high res photographs) is Exploring Indigenous Cultures through Authentic Indigenous Voices. The publication balances culture, equity and the environment in a beautiful mix that reminds the reader of the pictorial quality of National Geographic with a more in depth editorial content.

This second issue focuses on the Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii. In 165 pages the reader is introduced to the Haida People who kindly assisted the Canoe Kids staff by allowing access to Haida territory. Canoe Kids acknowledges the generosity of the Council of Haida Nation, the Haida Museum and the Haida Heritage Centre.

Educator Information
Each edition follows a common theme and features:

1: Compelling and beautiful pictorials that draw you into the stories and place of the featured community
2: The story of the vessel used by the featured Peoples
3: Art and Food
4: A Kids Zone
5: Resources for kids, parents and educators
6: Stories by and of the featured Peoples in each edition
7: Extraordinary pictures of the lives, land and waters of the featured Peoples

The materials are equal parts cultural and environmental. The latter is a natural offshoot of the former as Indigenous cultures are wrapped around and through the lands and water and sky both spiritually and from a harvesting and gathering perspective. Indigenous Peoples have long been the caretakers of Mother Earth and we can all learn from these experts whose message is perhaps more relevant today than ever.

Indigenous communities have always included the little ones in their circles and talk and teach to them in the same way they talk and teach to young adults and adults. Canoe Kids decided to follow that inclusive way of life for the layout of each book. Rather than create editions for different age groups, Canoe Kids decided to have one book for all ages.

K through 3 use Canoe Kids to read beautiful and ancient stories. There is beautiful original art to explore and a Kids Zone with puzzles, word searches, colouring, cutouts and more. Mid grades use the materials to study the culture, food and wildlife of the featured cultures. Grades 8 through 12 use stories that are more in depth from Dr. David Suzuki about the environment and there are discussion articles about living well and properly with Mother Nature as well as articles about the history and geography of the featured People.

Additional Information
165 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

The Ruptured Sky explores the War of 1812 from First Nations perspectives. Without their involvement, the borders of Canada and America might have been vastly different.

Without their First Nations allies, British troops and Canadian militia would not have win key battles and the U.S./Canada border might not exist. Canada might not have become an independent nation. First Nations peoples remained conflicted about whom to support since longstanding allegiances existed with both the British and Americans. This became a divisive issue. Individuals such as Tecumseh, John Norton, Joseph Brant, and others played major roles in the war's outcome. First Nations peoples fought with outstanding bravery, great ferocity, and remarkable skill. This book tells a little-known story of their remarkable contributions to Canadian victories in the War of 1812--and of how they were treated at the war's end.

Additional Information
62 pages 

Referencing a classic Haida oral narrative, this stunning full-colour graphic novel documents the powerful story of Red, a leader so blinded by revenge that he leads his community to the brink of war and destruction.

Set in the islands off the northwest coast of B.C., it tells the tale of orphan Red and his sister, Jaada. When raiders attack their village, Red, still a boy, escapes dramatically. But Jaada is whisked away. The loss of Jaada breeds a seething anger, and Red sets out to find his sister and exact revenge on her captors.

Red blends traditional Haida imagery into a Japanese manga-styled story. Tragic and timeless, it is reminiscent of such classic stories as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth and King Lear.

This innovation in contemporary storytelling consists of 108 pages of hand-painted illustrations. When arranged in a specific order, the panels of the narrative create a Haida formline image four metres long. The sequence for this complex design is displayed on the inside jacket.

Educator & Series Information
Haida manga is a contemporary style of Haida comics and print cartoons that explores the elements of both traditional North Pacific Indigenous arts and narrative, while also adapting contemporary techniques of artistic design from the western portion of the North Pacific, namely the Japanese manga from which its name derives.

This book is available in French: Red: Un manga haïda 

Additional Information
120 pages | 8.00" x 8.75"

Peter Macnair and Alan Hoover recount the history of Haida argillite carving since it began in the early 1800s, and they describe more than 200 examples from the extensive collection of the Royal BC Museum

Argillite is a dense, black shale mined from a quarry on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), reserved for the exclusive use of Haida carvers. Argillite works are unique in style and character, ranging from ceremonial pipes and model poles to elaborate platters and chests.

Ten masterful, complex drawings by Bill Reid are accompanied by ten episodes from Haida mythology told by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst. The result brings Haida art and mythology alive as never before in an English-speaking world. The collection includes, says Reid, "a good selection of bestiality, adultery, violence, thievery and assault, for those who like that sort of thing."

Educator Information
This work is available in French: Corbeau vole la lumiere

Additional Information
112 pages | 6.13" x 8.44"

Northwest Coast peoples were maritime engineers who mastered the art of building dugout canoes from gigantic red cedars, using only tools made from bone, stone, and wood. Ubiquitous, these elegant craft were used for everyday and ceremonial purposes, for fishing, hunting and trading, for feasting and potlatching, and in warfare—they were the keys that unlocked the treasure chest of the North Pacific.

Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe tells the story of the Northwest Canoe from its zenith in pre-contact times, through its decline in the late nineteenth century, to its revival in Lootaas (Wave Eater) which Bill Reid built for Expo '86, to its culmination with the Tribal Canoe Journeys of the twenty-first century and The Spirit of Haida Gwaii sculptures. Bill Reid expressed awe for the traditional Haida canoe and what it represents visually, symbolically, and culturally. In his words, "Western art starts with the figure—West Coast Indian art starts with the canoe."

The successive journeys of Lootaas were significant stages in Bill Reid's work, which culminated with the iconic sculpture The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, a monumental bronze canoe filled to overflowing with creatures of Haida mythology (currently featured on the Canadian twenty-dollar bill). As a final creative act Bill Reid requested that, at the end of his life, his ashes be transported in Lootaas paddled by a crew of his Haida friends and relatives to Tanu, his grandmother's village in Gwaii Haanas.

The story is told through writings and artworks by Bill Reid, vivid photographs by Phillip Hersee, Ulli Steltzer, Robert Semeniuk and others, texts by James Raffan, Martine J. Reid, and Mike Robinson and first-hand accounts by First Nations paddlers.

Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe is a companion book to the Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe exhibition mounted by the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art and touring to the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario.

Authenticity Note: Because of this work's contributions of writings and artworks from Bill Reid and other First Nations peoples on Indigenous topics, it has received the Authentic Indigenous Text and Authentic Indigenous Artwork labels.