Author Michael Nicholl Yahgulanaas's The Flight of the Hummingbird: An Environmental Parable, itself based on a South American indigenous folk tale, is the progenitor of this book, which has been revised to appeal to younger readers. Yahgulanaas is known in some circles as the "father of Haida-Manga," and The Little Hummingbird is the embodiment of this relatively new style of Haida comics, which combines elements of traditional North Pacific arts and narrative, in this case that of the Haida, and the design of Japanese manga.
But back to the book. Revised, it remains a parable, and a potent one at that. With its black and deep-red colour palette, and its animal and bird protagonists depicted by means of traditional Haida art forms, it is also a visually striking, dramatic book.
Its central figure is, of course, a tiny hummingbird, a denizen of "the great forest that caught on fire." As the fire rages, "All of the animals were afraid and fled from their homes. The elephant and the tiger ran. The beaver scurried and the frog leapt away. Above them the birds flew in a panic."
All except one bird, Little Hummingbird, who didn't try to escape from the fiery forest. Instead, she flew to a stream and picked up a drop of water in her long thin beak. Then, drop by drop, and unceasingly, she poured water onto the fire as the other creatures watched, immobilized by their powerlessness. When Big Bear asked her what she was doing, Little Hummingbird, "looked at the other animals. She said, 'I am doing what I can.' "
An environmental parable it is, but could it not be a parable for life itself?