Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has been producing "Haida manga," a new style marrying Haida formline with Japanese manga storytelling and other visual influences, for nearly two decades. SAM has commissioned a major new work from Yahgulanaas: a six-by-19-foot watercolor mural based on a Haida story about a hunter "taken underwater to the realm of a powerful spirit." The mural—accompanied by a 19th-century headdress made by Yahgulanaas's relative Albert Edward Edensaw, a naaxin robe and pattern board, and the artist's sketches—comments on environmental issues and humanity's relationship with nature.

This exhibit opened in November, but has been closed since March. SAM will reopen to the public on Friday, September 11.