Henry Hunt (artist)
Henry Hunt was a First Nations woodcarver and artist from the Kwakwaka'wakw people of coastal British Columbia.
He was born in 1923 in the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Fort Rupert, B.C. He was a descendant of the renowned ethnologist George Hunt. Hunt was originally a logger and fishermen but went to Victoria to help his father-in-law Mungo Martin at the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria in 1954, where he remained until 1974. He succeeded Mungo Martin there as chief carver in 1962.
Hunt followed the Kwakwaka'wakw carving tradition, using minimum paint, deep cuts with traditional tools. He carved a number of totem poles. Hunt's works can be seen at the Thunderbird Park and around the world, including a pole in the town of Berkhamsted, England.
He was the father of the artists Henry, Jr., Shirley Ford, Tony Hunt, Richard Hunt, and Stanley C. Hunt.
He and Tony Hunt, his eldest son, carved a memorial pole to Mungo Martin at Alert Bay, B.C., in 1970–71.
