KwaGulth artist and Hereditary Chief Tony Hunt restores landmark UVic totem pole
This summer KwaGulth Hereditary Chief and artist Tony Hunt worked in situ at UVic to reinstate two carved eagles to the top of a landmark totem pole. Companion totem poles Eagle on Decayed Pole and Raven Soaring stand sentinel over the central campus green space in the southwestern section of the quad. In 2009,someone scaled Eagle on Decayed Pole, inflicting considerable damage to the face of the pole in a successful attempt to remove the two eagle sculptures from its top.

In the 1960s, Tony Hunt had worked closely with his father, Henry Hunt, producing the poles as part of the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) Thunderbird Park carving program. He reunited with Eagle on Decayed Pole in effort to transform the damage done to the work. During the restoration process—which included the mounting of two newly carved eaglets and restoring black and red paint to elements of the pole’s design—Hunt provided insights into the history of the totem poles and the carving legacy of his grandfather Chief Mungo Martin.
Eagle on Decayed Pole and Raven Soaring are reproductions of Tsimshian poles originally erected in the villages of Kitwancool and Gitlakdamix. The replicas were carved by Henry and Tony Hunt as part of the Thunderbird Park carving program which brought damaged and deteriorating totem poles from abandoned villages throughout BC to master carver Chief Mungo Martin (and later to Chief Martin’s son-in-law Henry Hunt) to be copied and preserved.
“Villages were abandoned because of smallpox and Christianity,” says Tony Hunt. “A lot of villages were abandoned, and the people no longer fully believed in the meaning of the poles. Now that we have these [replicas], we are able to understand what the people lost because of smallpox and religion.”
Hunt notes that the Thunderbird Park carving project is “special because of the teaching of Mungo Martin. At the time there were no Haida or Tsimshian artists that were capable of replicating their [traditional carving] style.”
Martin learned carving in the Southern KwaGulth style from his uncle Charlie Hames and quickly amassed extensive knowledge and skill with carving. Having been hired by the RBCM, Martin used his expertise to replicate segments of deteriorating poles resulting in the preservation of many Tsimshian, Salish, KwaGulth and Nisga’a art pieces and carving forms.
Henry and Tony Hunt apprenticed with Martin, gaining from his knowledge of KwaGulth and other carving styles. Tony Hunt explains that at this time “there were probably only about eight artists [carvers]. Mungo knew that, so the legacy and responsibility he left to me was to teach. And I did teach so many to survive, so the art wouldn’t die at a time when it was very weak. He knew what he was doing. When you see Salish artists and Nootka artists and Haida, Tsimshian artists producing today, it’s all the result of somehow being influenced and taught by Mungo’s teaching them and my teaching them.”
Chief Tony Hunt sees Eagle on Decayed Pole and Raven Soaring differently from when he first carved them nearly 50 years ago. The meaning of the twin totem poles “has changed since ’63—they are now seen as works of art.” They are “examples of traditional art that was done at Thunderbird Park that was maintained not to die out. If we had not done these, the old ones would have disappeared. There would be no examples from where they came from—to me that’s exciting—here they are; they are respected.”
Special thanks to Chief Tony Hunt, Gwendoline Gold and Greg Ottenbrite for generously sharing their time and knowledge.