Award Category: First Nations Art Award

Richard Adkins grew up in a traditional Haida family, one in which his mother ran a dance group, and one where he had the opportunity to learn history and tradition. He has carried that love of art and tradition over many decades, beginning with studying Northwest Coast Art with Freda Diesing. As an established mixed media artist, Rick has created masterful pieces in sculpture, jewelry and drawing. Rick has garnered national recognition for his design, and his work has been exhibited at art galleries around the country. A true artist, Rick enjoys the process of creating art as well as the psychological effect of his art on the viewer. He is also passionate about teaching others and believes deeply in multi generational learning. Rick is also a leader in apprenticing female artists in a male dominant art form, saying that he learns as much from his apprentices as they do from him.

Henry Speck Jr. (Hank) is the son of Henry Speck a renowned graphic artist. Hank began carving while working as a logger in his early twenties. His employer was so impressed by these early pieces that he invested in the tools and encouraged him to concentrate on carving. A self-taught artist of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation of the Tlawitsis Tribe, Hank has close to sixty years of carving experience. He is delighted that young carvers now come to him for advice. Many of his pieces are interpretations of the large bird masks used in the hamatsa ritual and the Atlikim dance series. Given the scale and intricacy of his work, Hank produces only a few major pieces each year and many of these are for cultural use. Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) chiefs commission his gigantic raven and Hok Hok masks, stretching to six and seven feet in length, for use in potlatch ceremonies. Hank and his wife Julia live on the remote island community of Hopetown off Vancouver Island.

Corey Bulpitt is an artist from the Haida Na7ikun-Raven Clan and holds the name T’aak’eit G’aayaa, meaning “gifted carver.” The great-great-grandson of renowned artists Charles Edenshaaw and Louis Collison, he apprenticed under master carver Christian White and has worked with Dempsey Bob, Joe David, Jim Hart and Beau Dick, among others. Corey is known internationally for his fusion of hip hop culture and Haida traditional style in large-scale spray painted pieces, creating work for the National Gallery of Canada, Facebook Head Office in Seattle, and the Vancouver Mural Festival. Working with mediums as diverse as wood, argillite, gold, silver, glass, textiles, spray paint, and traditional Kiida (hand-poke) tattooing, Corey has steeped himself in the traditional work of his ancestors, forming a foundation for his distinctive contemporary style.

Danika Saunders (formerly Naccarella) is the inaugural recipient of the Crabtree McLennan Emerging Artist Award. A hardworking, talented young artist of Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw and Nuxalk descent, Danika melds her understanding of classic northern Northwest Coast design with Nuxalk style, while remaining respectful to historical rules and traditions. Her graduation from Acwsalcta School in Bella Coola saw her head to Terrace to begin a two-year diploma at the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art where she distinguished herself as a methodical, thoughtful, and confident artist. She has been the recipient of the YVR Art Foundation Award, a BC Arts Council Scholarship and the President’s Award at Northwest Community College. More recently, Danika accepted a residency with Earthline Tattoo Training in Kelowna to immerse herself in traditional hand-poke tattooing and skin-stitch techniques. She has returned to Bella Coola to continue learning and to mentor younger Indigenous artists as an art teacher at Acwsalcta School.

The Crabtree McLennan Emerging Artist designation was established in 2016. Named in honour of Brenda Crabtree, Director, Aboriginal Programs, Emily Carr University and the late Bill McLennan (1948-2020), Curator Emeritus, UBC Museum of Anthropology, this recognition aims to highlight and support emerging talent.

Born in Alert Bay, but raised in Victoria, Kevin’s first experience seeing Kwakwaka’wakw art was at the age of four when his father took him to Chief Tony Hunt’s “Arts of the Raven” gallery. Inspired by his father, Danny, and encouraged by his mother, Lily, Kevin’s first formal teaching came in a grade eight native art class taught by relative George Hunt Jr, and was furthered with Tony Hunt and relatives Chief Calvin Hunt, Tony Hunt Jr, John Livingston, and Chief Frank Nelson. Kevin had the opportunity to work at Thunderbird Park at the Royal BC Museum where he assisted Nuu-chah-nulth carver, Tim Paul, on three totem pole projects: a 40-foot pole in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, a 30-foot pole at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, and a 35-foot pole for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand. His most fulfilling work is that created for family or ceremony, and to that end he carved a Chief’s Chair for the reopening of the ‘Namgis Bighouse in Alert Bay in memory of his grandmother Gwantilakw-Agnes Cranmer. Currently, with the guidance of his uncles, Chief Calvin Hunt and John Livingston, he is carving a 40-foot totem pole in memory of his father, Daniel Earl Cranmer.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an award-winning contemporary visual artist of mixed Haida and European ancestry. The descendant of iconic artists Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill, his early training was under exceptional creators and master carvers of talented lineage. Yahgulanaas has made significant contributions to expanding the understanding of Indigenous art and ideas and has been influenced by both traditional Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture. His visual practice encompasses many forms, including intimate graphic ink drawings, multi-panel watercolours, large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, and illustrated publications. From repurposed ledger books to reclaimed car hoods, his works are whimsical and original. Yahgulanaas uses his art to communicate a worldview that, while particular to Haida Gwaii, is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally engaged audience.

Steven Davies is a Coast Salish filmmaker and media artist of Snuneymuxw and European descent. He makes collaborative films and media art that centre spiritual, cultural, and political themes, to reconnect with Indigenous histories and epistemologies to educate himself and share with others. Steven feels a huge responsibility to the artists, knowledge keepers, and cultural leaders that have mentored and supported his growth, and the individuals whose voices and actions are shared in his work.

A master basketry artist from the Neskonlith community of the Secwepemc Nation, Delores Purdaby has practiced as a customary artist for over four decades. Her mother-in-law, Theresa Purdaby, and her mother, Christine Allen, along with other Secwepemc women, taught her the skills she continues to use today. Delores’ vast ecological and traditional knowledge – necessary for understanding when and where to harvest and how to process and finally use the materials pulled from nature into her baskets – is passed on to the many generations of Secwepemc she has gone on to mentor. Immersed in the community and in a different functioning of cultural art, production and circulation, Delores has never been formally recognized for her work, which is little known outside Secwepemc territory. She adapts and innovates with each piece she creates, from her massive cedar root basket that took many years to create, to smaller works often sold or traded to support ceremonial and community activities. Delores’ dedication to her practice and mentorship of future generations is a valuable legacy for all, in BC and beyond.