Haida Artist April White, Powell River, BC

April was born on Haida Gwaii (commonly called the Queen Charlotte Islands), off the north west coast of Canada's British Columbia, just a short boat trip from Alaska. The First Nations people are known by their original name, the Haida.

More talented artists have originated from this small group of islands than anywhere else in Canada. Here art isn't a past time, it's a life time. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver reported seeing many giant wooden human statues. That same year French expedition leader, Etienne Marchand, marveled at the "paintings everywhere, everywhere sculpture, among a nation of hunters." He said: "every man is a painter or a sculptor." April has dozens of relatives living in these islands, all practicing indigenous art--painting, sculpting, totem poles, carving masks using cedar bark and spruce root in weaving, jewelry making, steaming bentwood boxes and creating art out of the stone unique to the islands, Argillite.