On a ship with torn sails, tossed by churning waters, the first of many Europeans needing rescue arrives along the coast of what is now B.C., before a Haida canoe brings an outstretched paddle and the warm light of salvation.

So begins the latest book of 91裸聊视频淗aida Manga91裸聊视频� by artist and author Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, as he reaches into the history of his own family and of colonization in a work that blends Indigenous artistic influences with Japanese manga comic-book story telling.

The colourful watercolour panels of 91裸聊视频淛AJ: a Haida Manga91裸聊视频� leap off the page as they draw the audience inside the world-spanning story.

Released in May, the book traces the journeys of both Yahgulanaas91裸聊视频檚 ancestors and the eponymous Norwegian mariner Johan Adrian Jacobsen, who visited Haida Gwaii in 1882 in search of cultural items for a German museum during a time of escalating colonial violence against Indigenous Peoples.

Yahgulanaas 91裸聊视频� whose works are in institutions including the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vancouver Art Gallery 91裸聊视频� said the story represents an invitation to humanize each other and forge a path toward a better future.

He said he found himself empathizing with Jacobsen, a young man who was 91裸聊视频減romised much and given little91裸聊视频� by those who hired him.

91裸聊视频淚 discovered that, like myself, he comes from a small fishing village. His family would harvest seabird eggs for sale and eating, and I91裸聊视频檝e done the same,91裸聊视频� he said.

The artist91裸聊视频檚 mission is to create artwork that 91裸聊视频渁llows people who don91裸聊视频檛 know us to see us as humans,91裸聊视频� which he said hasn91裸聊视频檛 been the case for Indigenous Peoples and people of colourthrough colonization, and to a significant degree still isn91裸聊视频檛.

91裸聊视频淚 thought, if people could see the 91裸聊视频榦ther,91裸聊视频� whoever the other is, as a son or a daughter, that would go a long way to humanizing and alleviating the violence.91裸聊视频�

The panel style of 91裸聊视频淛AJ91裸聊视频� is common to Japanese Manga and graphic novels, but instead of rigid boxes, Yahgulanaas91裸聊视频檚 story inhabits window-like spaces opened by a sinuous black line ebbing and flowing through the pages.

Unfold the dust cover and a surprise is revealed 91裸聊视频� the book91裸聊视频檚 108 pages combine to form a single mural. The black line delineating the panels expands and contracts symmetrically across the mural, forming the image of a creature that recalls an old Haida weaving design.

It91裸聊视频檚 a style Yahgulanaas has employed in previous Haida Manga works.

The original 91裸聊视频淛AJ91裸聊视频� mural, four metres in length, now hangs in the Humboldt Forum, a museum in Berlin whose representatives approached Yahgulanaas to see if he was interested in creating a piece of artwork reflecting on Jacobsen91裸聊视频檚 story.

Also on display at the German museum is the Haida totem pole that Jacobsen brought back with him.

Yahgulanaas91裸聊视频檚 work is at once playful, mischievous and serious; he depicts an encounter between Jacobson and one of his real-life ancestors, George, as a key part of the narrative.

Some encounters like this are imagined, but real historical figures play an active role in the story, overseeing the spread of smallpox that devastated Indigenous communities.

While doing research for 91裸聊视频淛AJ,91裸聊视频� Yahgulanaas said he discovered that ancestors on his father91裸聊视频檚 side came from the same part of Norway as Jacobsen, making the story even more personal.

91裸聊视频淚t became more important to humanize all the characters,91裸聊视频� Yahgulanaas said.

Jacobsen went to Berlin to try to establish a career, improve his circumstances and start a family, and Yahgulanaas said he moved to Vancouver with similar desires.

Yahgulanaas comes from Masset, on the northern tip of Haida Gwaii, where artwork has long been an economic driver.

He said that artwork has tended toward the 91裸聊视频渕onumental,91裸聊视频� often ending up in privileged places like grand institutions and private collections.

That bothered Yahgulanaas.

91裸聊视频淲e reduce ourselves as individuals. We make ourselves small in the presence of that which is grand and great,91裸聊视频� he said.

The scale of Yahgulanaas91裸聊视频檚 murals preserves a sense of grandeur, but transforming them into books makes them accessible and engaging.

91裸聊视频淎 book can live in your hand. You can flip the page forwards and backwards. You are in control of the flow of the story 91裸聊视频� it is subject to your interpretation.91裸聊视频�

Comic books and graphic storytelling can also span barriers of ethnicity, class, language and education, Yahgulanaas said.

The artist said 91裸聊视频淛AJ91裸聊视频� is an invitation to start a conversation, and forge new relationships that put an end to violence.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 the Haida belief that if you make friends first, if you establish the human relationship first, then those difficult questions can be resolved much easier.91裸聊视频�

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

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