In cold wintry sunshine, Richard Hunt’s totem pole stands tall again, freshly painted and ready to weather the elements.
Hunt, master carver at the Royal B.C. Museum from 1974 to 1984, created the totem in 1979. It is the first totem pole he created by himself without the help of his famous father, Henry Hunt, and family friend Mungo Martin.
In September, the 42-year-old totem pole was taken down for conservation treatment. Hunt washed the pole three times, repainted it with two coats, then oiled it with linseed oil and a bit of paint thinner. The work took place on the grounds of the museum, where an excited public could stop by and watch him working.
On Monday, the pole was raised in its new home in Thunderbird Park next to Wawadit’la or Mungo Martin House.
“It was great to see it go back up and the museum taking responsibility and looking after it,” Hunt said. “If this was in my village, we would have just let it fall down and go back to the earth. But this is in the public domain. I’ve been trying to tell them to paint it for 20 years and we finally got her done.”
A baby Thunderbird sits atop the pole. Below it are other crests from the Hunt family, a hawkman, a copper with a bear design, a bear holding onto a man.
“I never asked my dad for any help because I wanted to see if I could do it myself,” Hunt recalled. “My dad never knew that my Uncle Tommy, a man I loved and highly respected, told me what to do. He told me the figures. He was there before I was in the morning when I went to work to tell me what to do.
“I kept saying ‘Uncle Tom, I can only do so much a day. Just let me do this and then you can tell me what to do next.’ ”
Hunt, who began carving at 13, has won awards for his art, philanthropy and leadership. His work has been used by the Royal Canadian Mint on legal three times. He has been named to the Order of Canada and the Order of B.C. and holds a doctorate of fine arts from the University of Victoria.
“Our culture is coming alive again,” Hunt said. “People are going to church — our big house is our church. It’s so great to see all these young kids embracing their culture, learning their songs, dances and going to the big house.”
