Page One: pencil crayon illustration of a sunrise over a northern town. The image is dominated by the sky with large clouds, the powerlines and snow below tiny in the corner.
Page Two: Three panels. 1) a figure in a fur lined traditional parka walked down a snowy street, powerlines overhead, snow covered utilidors to one side. The light of the sun like flames reflected on the snow. 2) Text: Up here, daylight arrives only to be vanquished. Up here, the moon rises higher than the sun. I was warned that the circumference of the circle of life would be shorter. Third, outside shot of Arctic Mart, a figure driving past in a snowmobile.
Page Three: Three panels. 1) Arctic Mart interior. Rows of cartons of orange juice, $9.25 (this comic was written in the 2010s when juice down south was around $3.50). 2) Furs with tags hanging on a peg board, a raccoon pelt with a plastic anti-shoplifting device. Prices range from $35.00 to $219.99. 3) At a coffee station stands the walking figure from page two, seen from behind. Beside, the torso of a figure in a Canada Goose jacket. They both hold coffees. There's a paper napkin dispenser, sugar, honey, stirring sticks. A sign says QUAYNAINNI! MAHSI CHO! THANK YOU!
Page Four: Two panels. 1) The parka figure, a woman, sits at a table, coffee in one hand, Northern News in the other. The headlines read DELTA OIL HOSTS JOB FAIR and CLIMATE CHANGE STUDY CANCEELED. Behind her, a community bulletin board. Posters (some obscured) read, Youth Centre Healthy Eating Program Launch! Jan 16 @ 6PM; ...If found, please call 8-6414... Used Skidoo $6000 with little tags with contact info ripped off at the bottom. 2) Closeup of newspaper, words partly cut off NORTHERN... DELTA OIL HOSTS JOB... High School Students in Northe... by Sharon Lennie. A part of a photo with Inuit and Indigenous high school students and their Inuit teacher standing in front of a poster that reads YOUR FUTURE IN OIL. The back page of ads reads ...shifts $16/hour...ticmart.com (when this comic was made, minimum wage in a southern province in Ontario was around $10/hour)... 2 bdrm $1875/mo
Page Five: Two panels. 1) Newspaper interior. Headshot of a Gwich'in woman. GTC REMEMBERS LANGUAGE TEACHER. Pull quote reads, Mary was one of the youngest fluent Gwich'in speakers. 2) Sepia toned pencil crayons. Interior of Mary's house. Photos on the wall of family. A cross by the door. A tapestry hanging, words partly cut off that read HAI CHO KAGWATHAT... SHII... VUURI... AMEN. Mary, wearing a necklace with a cross pendant stands in the foreground. Behind her, the woman in the previous pages is entering. She asks, Hello? Mary? I'm ready for my lesson.
Page Six: Three panels. The two women in profile facing each other, the frame zooming in with each panel until you can only see their noses and lips. Mary: Nan kak nin naha'o k'andenot'ii. Student: Nan ka nin na'hao... na'.. kan'... kan'... Mary: naha'o k'an-de-no-t'ii. Student: naha-'o kan... kan... Mary: k'andenot'ii. Student: kan... k'an... k'andeno...t'ii. Nan kak nin naha'o k'andenot'ii. Speaking together: Nan kak nin naha'o k'andenot'ii. Mary: Now you've got it!
Page Seven: Three panels. 1) Crosses in a graveyard, peaking out from the snow, the sunlight casting colours over the surface. 2) Text: Ravens cut curious aerodynamic formations overhead, echoing the suddent twisting of our fates: dipping, soaring, pinwheeling. The dazzling sunlight surface of the land blots out my vision with bright, so that were it not for the sound of snow crunching underfoot, it would seem that I wander upon an empty topography over which I blindly swing, suspended by the parabola of my ambivalence. 3) Ravens fly high overhead in a sunny sky.
Page Eight: Three panels of footprints in the snow, the frame zooming in with each panel until all you see are dark colours of the shadows of one footbring and the light. Over this, text reads: I try not to blink as I search for your footprints to step in. For without them, I have broken through the snow crust and stumbling, I fell.