April 17, 2025
A yellow-bellied sapsucker has noticed some troubling changes on the Menominee reservation, located in northeastern Wisconsin. The emerald ash borer is moving into the region, threatening black ash trees used in traditional Menominee basketmaking. The forest, wildlife, and people will have to adapt in this changing environment.
This is one of the stories brought to life in, "What kind of day is it outside?" a new sequential art series. The series was launched in spring 2025 by the College of Menominee Nation’s Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), a Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC) consortium member institution. The series uses illustration and storytelling to explore some of the impacts that Menominee people are experiencing as a result of climate change, such as the spread of emerald ash borer.
The idea for the series was sparked by other climate storytelling projects, including the USGS Climate Illustrations. “Seeing that project prompted me to wonder whether we could create a culturally-relevant, place-based communications product for regional Tribes, focused on the Menominee community and language,” said Allison Scott, MW CASC Deputy Tribal Resilience Liaison based at SDI.
Inspiration also came from work other Indigenous people are doing to share information through contemporary forms of storytelling. Jennifer Gauthier, director of SDI, explained, “Indigenous futurism, while a newer term, has always been a part of our ways. Hopefully we are helping our community think about not just our past and current issues but also about adaptation and our future through science, graphics, and Menominee language.”
Development Process
The development of the series was highly collaborative, with each team member bringing their own skills and expertise to the table. Scott and Sara Smith, MW CASC Tribal Resilience Liaison, took the lead in drafting the script, incorporating topical expertise from their work on regional climate change science and adaptation issues. Gauthier provided expertise as a Menominee language teacher. Nicholas Schwitzer, media specialist at SDI, created all of the illustrations. “None of us could have created these comics on our own and I am so very grateful for this team,” Smith said. “We have learned, and continue to learn, from each other through the process, whether that is climate science knowledge, biology knowledge, language and culture knowledge, or illustration skills.”
The visual design of the sequential art project was inspired in part by the blended cartoon and realistic look developed by Bill Watterson when he created Calvin & Hobbes. Schwitzer said, “While our main characters Sapsucker and Woodpecker are a bit personified, I wanted the emerald ash borer to be realistic for folks to be able to identify them – which is why he’s so detailed and sparkly! It was interesting to find that balance of whether to go in either the cartoon or realistic direction in regards to our world.”
Storytelling & Science
Storytelling can help make information more accessible, engaging, and memorable to an audience. Scott explained, “Communicating science using storytelling and art is holistic and helps the message resonate with our everyday lives.”
Of course, using storytelling to convey information isn’t a new idea. “Storytelling is part of Indigenous culture and it has been a way to pass on information throughout the generations since time immemorial,” Smith said. “Using storytelling and illustrations to communicate science makes it more personal and easier to disseminate to others and also allows complex messages to be broken down into more digestible bites.”
When it comes to climate change specifically, research shows that messages about complexity and impact resonate most strongly when they are centered in the cultural values and beliefs of the audience and integrated with the experience of being place-based. Gauthier emphasized the importance of using the sequential art series as a way for people to understand changes in the local environment. She said, “Menominee hunters, harvesters, fishers, and growers will tell you how everything is changing. We want to share these stories and data with everyone so that people see how we are impacted in a very real way. Maybe this inspires change.”
The Menominee Theoretical Model of Sustainability
The Menominee Theoretical Model of Sustainability is a conceptual model of sustainable development incorporated into all of SDI’s work. The model is made up of six dynamic, interdependent dimensions of sustainability and is used to inform education, planning, and participatory research.
Gauthier explained how the model influenced this project: “Without being explicit about each model dimension, this comic strip deftly addresses human perceptions – how we are observing forestry changes; technology – traditional art forms; land and sovereignty – relationships between all things; natural environment-black ash trees and making space for new plants, insects, animals; institutions – basket makers and carriers of knowledge; economy – Menominee value of black ash baskets; and autochthony, which is about balance, about place, and about having a profound connection to land – for Menominee, our language represents that autochthony.”
Series Impact
The team hosted an event to celebrate the launch of the series at the College of Menominee Nation. Gauthier, Scott, Schwitzer, and Smith presented on what inspired the project, shared information on Emerald Ash Borer, and held a panel discussion with a Menominee Forester and two community black ash basket makers. Turnout at the event was strong, and the reception was so positive the organizers asked for more events about this work. “The reception for the series so far has been overwhelmingly positive,” Scott said.
Schwitzer said, “I've been hearing folks say that they’re excited to see a comic that is from our Menominee point of view and that takes place on the reservation. I also have a lot of proud family members on my end who are excited to see a comic I illustrated in the local papers – especially my Mom, who’s happy I stopped drawing on the walls and switched to paper.”
The author team emphasized that this sequential art method can be used by others and iterated upon. SDI has hosted workshops to help people learn how to approach writing, drawing, and publishing sustainability-related graphic storytelling. “If you want to explore how to use art as a vehicle to explain your research,” Schwitzer said, “then pick up a pencil or collaborate with an artist that you know. Even if it’s just stick figures, you can work at your own artistic level to communicate your research with everyone.”
Two “episodes” of the series have been published so far: