MANITOULIN - When something flourishes in a certain area--say, indie rock in Montreal, or literature in Michigan--people tend to rub their chins and mutter, "Must be something in the water."

In the case of Manitoulin and its bounteous crop of Aboriginal artists--many of whom would have been raised in homes that lacked municipally treated H20--it might be truer, but just as mysterious, to say that there must be something in the lakes, springs, forests, swamps, cliffs, caves, skies, clouds, dreams, stories and spirits.

In the new book Portraits of Spirit Island: The Manitoulin School of Art Comes of Age, Gore Bay author Margo Little pays tribute, and lends scope, to this local outpouring of First Nation creativity by profiling 18 of the Island's most accomplished and influential artists, and allowing them to explain the reasons why they began painting (or potting, or carving, or photo-transferring) and how they feel their work fits into a broader movement--if it even does.

As Ms. Little notes in her preface, many of Manitoulin's artists have been, with some justification, grouped into the Woodland School of Aboriginal art, yet while "many may have started out using Woodland techniques, most have branched off into highly individual personal styles."

This variety is obvious as one begins to sift through Ms. Little's book, arranged in chapters that highlight the unique offerings of each local talent, in alphabetical order. We learn, for instance, about the provocative, multi-media works of the late Carl Beam; the bold brushstrokes and clever subtexts of Blake Debassige; the mystical dreamscapes of Francis Kagige; the haunted canvases and earthy pots of David Migwans; and the possessed mountains of James Mishibinijima.

Imagery in these "Manitoulin" artworks could feature children on a James Bay trapline (Shirley Cheechoo), shamans in Ecuador (Ann Beam), or the lush surroundings of BC's Lake Shuswap (Daphne Odjig).

Not only do these Island artists resist being filed together under the Woodland label, it would even be tricky to attribute their work to a specific Manitoulin style.

Yet there are some commonalities of experience and influence, beginning with the aforementioned Ms. Odjig, born in Wiky in 1919 and alternately known as the First Lady of the Woodland School and the Queen of Canadian Aboriginal Art. She would move away from Manitoulin and make her name while living on the prairies and in BC, but she also came back and helped inspire a new generation of Island artists.

One of the venues in which she provided such guidance, along with contemporaries in the budding First Nation art fold like Carl Ray and Duke Redbird, was the Manitou Arts Foundation camp, held on Schreiber Island in the late 1960s. Its influence can hardly be overstated, as many if not most of the artists profiled in Ms. Little's book either attended this camp or were indirectly shaped by the burst of creativity it engendered.

As Ms. Little writes in Portraits of Spirit Island, "the now legendary Schreiber Island project would turn out to be the incubator and catalyst for many youngsters in need of a boost to their self-esteem and sense of direction."

Wikwemikong's Tom Peltier, who sadly passed away this past year, was the mastermind behind this project, although he remained typically humble and almost nonchalant in describing the experiment years later. "We went and did our little project and it turned out very well," he tells Ms. Little in Portraits. "Of course, at the beginning we didn't know what we were getting into."

Ms. Little has dedicated her book to Mr. Peltier, whom she describes as "a man of vision who worked for many years to promote and preserve First Nations art and heritage."

As for the catalyst that spurred her to produce this apropos and elegantly written work, Ms. Little notes in her prologue that it was precipitated by a couple of overlapping circumstances: beginning in the spring of 2007, she had set out to write a series of profiles on Island artists for HighGrader Magazine; a few months later, she was invited to present a paper on the local arts scene for a symposium held in conjunction with a Daphne Odjig retrospective in Sudbury.

These dovetailing projects sharpened her thinking about the Aboriginal art movement on Manitoulin and added to her compulsion to tell the stories she'd already been gathering in a more comprehensive and accessible form.

In some ways, though, she'd been preparing to write this book for decades. The daughter of a M'Chigeeng band member, and granddaughter of M'Chigeeng entrepreneurs who operated a tea room at the very site where the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) now stands, the author has been instinctively drawn to the OCF since its creation in the early 1970s and has written many articles on its programs and exhibitions over the years, including countless ones that have appeared in these pages.

While she had some misgivings about whether or not she was the appropriate person to be communicating the stories of First Nation artists, she was reassured both by the welcome she received from her subjects, and a "nighttime visitation encouraging me to carry on."

We're glad she did, as the result is a thoughtfully researched and thoroughly readable introduction to the gifted people who have put Manitoulin on the map of First Nations art--one could even argue for our place as its capital--and one that fills a conspicuous vacuum on bookshelves regarding this cultural phenomenon.

Earlier works have touched on Manitoulin's vibrant art scene. Theresa Smith's The Island of the Anishnaabeg, published over a decade ago, even consulted and described many of the same artists profiled in Ms. Little's work--but it was ultimately a work about Aboriginal belief systems, and while fascinating, probably too academic in tone to attract a wide audience. Wild Ontario: An Artist's and Photographer's Guide, published in 2007, pays a complimentary, if cursory, visit to local galleries and describes a few of our more noteworthy talents, but is hardly the sort of site-specific treatment that this widely renowned nexus of creativity deserves.

In her much-welcomed tome, Ms. Little observes that many of these Manitoulin artists have experienced difficult challenges--from personal demons like illness, abuse and addiction to professional affronts such as having their work demeaned as substandard 'woodpecker art'--but most have weathered these setbacks and become stronger as a result. Some put their paintbrushes, palettes and carving tools away for years, only to pick them up again later with renewed vigour.

In doing so, they have truly, as her subtitle argues, come of age. And Ms. Little's celebration of this resilient wave of Island creativity also comes at an appropriate juncture, catching most of these artists in a still-productive phase of their careers, but in many cases older and wiser enough now to put their more youthful experiments in perspective.

Francis Kagige, now 80, is still painting. Daphne Odjig, born a decade earlier, isn't producing quite as much as she did in her youth and middle years, but she hasn't given up the artistic path yet, either. Of all the artists Ms. Little describes in this book, only Martin Panamick, who died at a tragically young age, in a traffic accident, is no longer able to wield a brush or contribute to the dialogue. But his legacy lives on, in both the influence he continues to exert on his fellow artists and, now, in the pages of this book.

If there's a criticism to be made about this tome, it certainly isn't about the writing, which is compelling and refreshingly readable throughout--Ms. Little mostly lets the artists do the talking, and if she injects an observation or provides some context, does so in a respectful manner, while also displaying an obvious grasp of her subject--but a shortage of actual artworks reproduced here for our appreciation.

That's surely a factor of the printing costs, so not something about which the author herself should feel guilty. Hopefully the book's second printing--and we're predicting it will easily find a big enough audience to justify another run through the presses--might include a few more colour plates.

Copies of Portraits of Spirit Island are available at a variety of Island outlets, including the Expositor office, or by contacting the author directly: by mail at Box 79, Gore Bay, Ont., P0P 1H0; by phone at (705) 282-1714; or by visiting her website at www.margolittle.com.

This Friday (July 31), the Expositor will also be hosting a book launch, from 3 pm to 6 pm, at which the author will be present to sign copies of her new work and answer questions about the writing process. Light refreshments will be available, as well as, of course, lots of fresh-off-the-press editions of the book.