“Regaining every inch of our culture is a blessing,” says Mia Hunt.

She is from Heiltsuk First Nation in Bella Bella, BC. She was born Métis Cree and her mother married a hereditary chief in Bella Bella when Hunt was a little girl. These days Hunt is an artist designer, making jewelry, traditional dance regalia, contemporary clothing, leather work, purses, moccasins, Cree and West Coast regalia.

She works at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology at the Burnaby campus as an elder. They are planning a program to make ribbons skirts. She designed fabrics through a company called Spoonflower in the US but with the cost of duty and the exchange rate it wasn’t profitable. She’s looking to design fabric again through another partnership in the future.

Hunt’s father, Frank Lewis, was an amazing artist and muralist. Her mother met him at art school and they had Hunt but didn’t get married though he was involved in her life over the years. Her mother was an artist, too, and the man she married, Robert Hall, was a carver, as were her uncles. Hunt would sand their poles and help paint them.

Up until grade seven, Hunt went to school in Bella Bella, when she moved in with her biological father to go to school. She was kicked out of the regular school in Britannia and suffered from culture shock. She went to Hazelton where her parents had gone to try to go to school there but she could not get enrolled. She learned to carve from Sam Wesley alongside her parents.

When her family held a potlatch in 1981 to announce her father’s chieftainship, Hunt was asked to make button blankets for her dad and brother. She asked her grandmother to teach her and she agreed, telling her, “I’m teaching you these things, because I want you to be able to pass it on to the generations that will be coming when I'm gone, but I don't want you to teach just anybody. It needs to be people that need their culture back.”

She taught her what each component of the button blanket means, the borders representing the crossbeam and house posts, the bottom representing the dirt floor, the neckline representing the smoke hole and the centre where the crest goes showing where you come from. She’s been making regalia and teaching others ever since. At the Native Education College, she taught button blanket making to hundreds of students and loved working there. She’s since moved on to other places to teach.

Hunt moved to the city from Bella Bella after getting divorced. She had three daughters and adopted a daughter and two sons. One of her daughters passed away, unfortunately. Now she has twelve grandchildren. Her daughters learned from her artistic practice but took on other jobs. When her kids were young she would make leatherwork and jewelry at night and sell it during the day when they were in school.

She got into jewelry working for an elderly jeweler, doing all the polishing for the silver jewelry he was laser cutting in the evenings. When she left Native Education College, she worked on jewelry full time until the jeweler had a stroke and heart attack and the family wanted to close the business. She asked if she could finish the outstanding orders before they closed it. Ultimately she and her grandson and another employee got a loan to buy the business and they have since paid it off. They make jewelry from other people’s designs and they sell her designs in craft fairs and fashion shows.

Her love of fashion sparked as a little girl who made paper dolls from cereal boxes and clothes for them from paper. She took a fashion merchandising course in the eighties and she hoped it would teach her to make clothes, but it didn’t. Hunt makes a lot of her clothes out of leather and she describes her style of design as primitive because she hasn’t had formal training.

Creating has helped Mia through hard times, keeping her mind off her troubles. As she works, she prays for guidance. Her traditional name means “to place the coppers on the Potlatch floor” which means to be a pillar in the community, someone that looks out for everyone. In her work at NVIT, she likes to help build student’s self esteem with small projects like cedar roses and beaded earrings.

When she was young her grandfather told her that people would be jealous of her knowledge and she said “Well, I’m gonna share.” She has always wanted to see cultural knowledge passed on intergenerationally. Most of her time is spent on her jewelry business, The Laser Cut Heirlooms. She wants to leave the business to her grandchildren so she’s building it for them. At 65, she isn’t sure how much longer she will be working. Polishing silver is challenging and many people don’t last more than a day at it but she works with her grandson on big orders.  

For her downtime, Hunt watches Netflix, goes for forest walks, visits friends and family and makes baskets. She likes to sit up late at night and isn’t a morning person. She used to spend a lot of time crocheting while watching tv.  

Regaining every inch of our culture is a blessing and that’s why Mia Hunt shares her knowledge so freely. As an artist designer, she creates beautiful pieces and as an elder, she shows students how to make them. Keeping her mind off her troubles and praying as she works, her heart goes into her craftsmanship, imbuing each piece with love.

Thank you to Alison Tedford for writing this article.