HERRING PEOPLE—IINANG XAADEE: APRIL WHITE

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April White, “Herring People - Iinang Xaadee,” 2025

(courtesy of the artist)

Herring People—Iinang Xaadee integrates art and science to reveal the importance of herring, an iconic forage fish species, to the local indigenous communities and marine ecosystems of British Columbia.

This arts-based initiative (2016 – 2017) is a partnership between renowned Haida artist and geologist April SG̱áana Jáad White and three scientists: Drs Mimi E. Lam, chemist; Tony J. Pitcher, fisheries ecologist; and Evgeny A. Pakhomov, oceanographer.

“For my ancestors, the primary purpose of art is to unveil a parallel reality that is visible only in our minds—to share a glimpse of Supernatural Beings, with the world of Human Beings. Educated in science and with a spirit drawn to art, I see Earth as one great Being—with rock as skeleton and running water as veins and arteries, great oceans as hearts— sustaining ecosystems. All as an interconnected biome—a web of life living, at least on the surface, symbiotically… as prey, and as predator.

Iinang Xaadee—Herring People play a vital role in the ecosystem. They nurture, feed, give of themselves to keep beings alive in all realms— undersea, earth, and sky. When balance prevails, Herring People gather to dance in their great longhouse in such great numbers and with such vigour that the atmosphere overhead reverberates with their excitement. Now, Human Beings see Herring solely as a resource, blinded, not seeing their true value, only seeing monetary gain at the expense of the whole.

Highlighting six Haida values, the stories that accompany each of the eight serigraphs of the Iinang Xaadee Series, each with four different substates, tell of my encounters and invite the viewer to look deeper through the lens of art and science at the essential role Herring People play in the ecosystem. The imagery captures what I see, as I take you through the portal between our natural and the supernatural worlds. “

– April SG̱áana Jáad White

APRIL WHITE

April SGaana Jaad White received her Bachelor of Science degree from UBC and worked as a geologist in the field. With experience she became one with environment, as she translated what she saw in three dimensions into two through mapmaking. Transposing the natural world honed April’s inherent artistic inclination.

Colonialism left a chasm in the continuity of indigenous art forms. They were not passed down through the generations by apprenticeships as they once were. She feels it is the discipline of science that has given her the awareness to analyze, to put herself into the minds of her ancestors. They created with the materials at hand and adapted quickly to the new. Objects of the past are teachers —this is the ‘written’ language that provides illumination going forward.

Born on Haida Gwaii of the Daadans Yahgu ’jaanas Raven Clan, she both honours her Haida heritage and draws on her education, as she interprets the natural and mythological world in her art.

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