Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (born 1954) is a visual artist, and creator of Haida manga, from Delkatla in Masset on Haida Gwaii.

Early life

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas was born in 1954 in Masset, Haida Gwaii. He is a descendant of the influential Haida artists, Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw, Delores Churchill, and a member of the Saangaahl laanas sdastaas clan. Yahgulanaas was raised by John Bruce and Babs Hageman in Delkatla. His Haida name, Yahladaas means "White Raven."^[1] In the early 1990s he served as elected Chief Councillor of the Old Massett First Nation, one of the two contemporary Haida communities and was active in the creation of an islands-wide community endowment, the Gwaii Trust.

Art career

Yahgulanaas's work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries, and private collections across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. His visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including: large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism, and the human condition he uses art to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii, his ancestral North Pacific archipelago, is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.

The original five–meter long mural that was published in 2009 as RED: A Haida manga is on a multi-year exhibit tour. Another book, Hachidori has sold over 100,000 copies in Japan with a single-day record sale of 20,000 copies. Flight of the Hummingbird, first published in North America and now available in five languages, is also a bestseller and includes essays contributed by the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai. Declaration of Interdependence by Dr David Suzuki was illustrated by Yahgulanaas.^[2][3]

Yahgulanaas's works in metal include commissions from the British Museum (2010), The City of Vancouver (2011) and the 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee.

Since 2009, Yahgulnaas member of the board of the Museum of Anthropology.

Haida manga

Although Yahgulanaas trained under master carvers, his brief exposure to Chinese brush techniques with Cai Ben Kwan encouraged a departure from the typical expressions of the Haida art form and the development of a new genre of narrative art called "Haida manga."^[4]

Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. Haida Manga is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement. It offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection, and action.

Published works

• A Tale of Two Shamans (2001)^[1]
• The Last Voyage of the Black Ship (2001)
• A Lousy Tale (2004)
• Hachidori (2005)
• Flight of the Hummingbird (2008)
• RED, A Haida Manga (2009)
• The Canoe He Called Loo Taas— illustrations (2010)
• The Little Hummingbird (2010)
• The Declaration of Interdependence— illustrations (2010)
• Red: A Haida Manga, ISBN 978-1-55365-353-0, (2009)
• The Canoe He Called Loo Taas, ISBN 9780978255367, (2010)
• Old Growth: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Liz Park, ed. ISBN 978-1897476963 (2012)

Notes

External links

• Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, official website
• Haida manga