Corrine Hunt gave a Brown Bag Lunch Presentation on Wednesday, October 4, at 12:15 pm. Her talk was entitled “On Not Becoming an Artifact.”
Corrine Hunt, Komoyue, is from Yalis (Alert Bay) in British Columbia, Canada. Hunt was born on a reservation where the traditional ceremonies were banned for over half a century. Despite this, her grandparents continued practicing their ceremonial songs and dances throughout the ban.
Since 1985, Hunt has been creating works that reflect her Komoyue (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Tlingit culture. She has traveled extensively around the world, cultivating a love and respect of all cultures and the treasured stories they tell. Her work includes jewelry designed for special occasions—pieces that incorporate her own cultures’ design esthetic with that of her client’s personal story. Hunt also collaborates with a company in North Vancouver by applying modern designs to everyday goods, including serving platters, blankets, bags, and other items.
In recent years, Hunt has gone on to larger design projects, such as the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Medals, 2018 Canadian Olympic snowboard uniforms (with Burton), four coins for the Royal Canadian Mint, and three hotel rooms in Canada’s first Aboriginal Boutique Hotel. In addition, she designed “The Power of Giving,” a 2011 exhibit organized by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, and is currently collaborating on the design of a planned 2019 exhibit on Franz Boas and her ancestor George Hunt for U’mista and Bard Graduate Center. Hunt’s awards include the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for the Arts (2011) and the BC First Nations Achievement in the Arts (2016). She has contributed to multiple exhibition catalogues and films, and is the author of OLaka Iku Da Nala: It is a Good Day (Panabo Publishing, 2012).
In this talk, Hunt will discuss how her work in the design field, including her own travels and experiences in the telling of stories, attempts to illustrate the depth of her indigenous traditions and the sense of a vibrant living culture.
