Henry Hunt Sr. is a renowned Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Tlingit artist who apprenticed under his father in law, Mungo Martin (Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, 1879-1962), from 1954 until Mungo's passing. [1] They worked together at Thunderbird Park in Victoria on Vancouver Island, creating monumental and model poles, masks, feast dishes, and other objects for cultural use and sale. Henry was from a historically important lineage that includes his great grandmother, the Tlingit weaver Mary Ebbetts (1823-1919), and her son (and Henry's grandfather), Tlingit ethnologist George Hunt (1854-1933). Henry himself ultimately became the patriarch of a large family of descendants who include some of the most prominent Indigenous artists and scholars working in Canada today.

This Sea Lion feast dish is carved in red cedar and is a close match in terms of style and size to three other figural dishes by Henry in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, all made in 1963. The imagery of the dishes at MOA includes a Seal (3259/17), a Wolf (3259/18 a–c), and a Loon (3259/19). [2] In our opinion, the Sea Lion dish being offered by First Arts is close enough in both style and size to the MOA examples to justify also assigning it a 1963 creation date. This work reflects a more mature style that Henry developed after his time with Mungo and utilizes the green, black, and red paint palette he would use for the rest of his career.

1. Henry Hunt Biography in MOA CAT. https://collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/search/person?person=1271&tab=biography. Accessed 14 October 2026.

2. The feast dish identified as a Loon in the MOA collection almost certainly represents a Raven.

CWS

CWS