Stanley C. Hunt

Stanley Clifford Hunt (born 1954) is a Canadian, First Nations Kwakiutl artist from British Columbia.

History On his father's side, Stanley C. Hunt is a descendant of Native ethnologist George Hunt. He is also a descendant of a family of artists including his grandfather Mungo Martin, and his father Henry Hunt. He and his brothers Richard (born 1951) and Tony (1942–2017) are all renowned international artists. Stanley was born when his grandfather was Chief Carver at Thunderbird Park British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria, British Columbia. His father succeeded his grandfather as Chief Carver in 1962. Stanley's work resides in private, public, and museum collections.

Family legacy of cultural preservation Stanley's grandfather, Mungo Martin is credited with saving and preserving Kwakiutl arts and culture by secretly maintaining potlatch ceremonies during the Canadian potlatch ban which outlawed these social events and the native arts associated with them. The ban lasted from 1885 to 1951. The first legal potlatch after the law was repealed in 1951 was overseen by Martin in Victoria. In 1949, the University of British Columbia hired Martin to replicate the poles. While resident carver he built on site his own big house and collected and preserved 400 songs and oral histories. He is credited with the rebirth of an artistic heritage once pronounced dead. A 42 ft 10 in. Stanley Hunt-carved totem pole, 2012, Plaza Canadá, Buenos Aires, Argentina

In another example of preserving his family's carving culture, in 2010 Stanley, his wife Lavina, and their artist son Jason Henry Hunt traveled to Rancho Mirage California to restore his father's 30-foot totem pole which was commissioned by Walter Annenberg and Leonore Annenberg in 1976 and resides at their former home, the Sunnylands estate. In 2015, Stanley and his son Jason again traveled to California to restore another Henry Hunt totem pole which preceded the Sunnylands' pole arrival in the Coachella Valley when it was installed in Palm Springs. The Palm Springs pole had been a gift to the city in 1968 through the sister city program and still resides in its original location on Racquet Club Road in Victoria Park.