Mungo Martin: Man of Two Cultures

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

Mungo Martin had seen 82 years when he died in 1962. He had been born to prominence — he was heir to many exalted names as a member of the hereditary nobility of the Kwakiutl. His natural abilities and early training made him a masterful carver. He had apprenticed under his step-father, Charlie James, one of the most skilled artists in coastal British Columbia in the last century. Martin’s own skills were discovered by the white world, and in the last decade of his life he enjoyed the patronage of university, museum, and government. The power of his works continues to impress visitors to Victoria and Vancouver, and the current renaissance of native art in B.C. owes a large debt to Mungo Martin. This little book in text and photograph pays tribute to a remarkable artist.

A brief sketch outlines Martin’s parentage and childhood. Even more brief is the attention given most of his adult years, while he fished commercially and married Abayah Hunt, a weaver of Chilkat blankets. The book focuses on his artistic production during his final years, when he was employed by various agencies to produce copies of old totem poles which had rotted beyond repair and to produce new works of art. Several of these are described, as are the ceremonies appropriate to their installation. Martin played an important role as a teacher to younger kinsmen and carvers during these years. Finally, the tributes paid to Martin after his death demonstrate the high regard the man and his works enjoyed among those familiar with them.

One could only wish that more examples of Martin’s carvings had been included among the photographs that adorn this book. Indeed, this small book makes it clear that there is another, far larger, book that needs to be written. Mungo Martin deserves a full biography and a complete, well-illustrated catalogue of his artistic production.