Chief Mungo Martin or Nakapenkem (lit. Potlatch chief "ten times over"), Datsa (lit. "grandfather"), was an important figure in Northwest Coast style art, specifically that of the Kwakwaka'wakw Aboriginal people who live in the area of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. He was a major contributor to Kwakwaka'wakw art, especially in the realm of wood sculpture and painting. He was also known as a singer and songwriter.
Personal life
Martin was born in 1879 in Fort Rupert, British Columbia, to parents of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation. He was the son of Yaxnukwelas, a high-ranking native from Gilford Island. His mother was Q'omiga, also known by her English name, Sarah Finlay, who was the mixed-race daughter of a Kwakwaka'wakw woman and a Scottish man working with the Hudson's Bay Company. Martin's father died when he was in his teen years. His mother married Yakuglas, also known in English as Charlie James. Martin's mother wanted her son to become a woodcarver and song maker, and held rituals to ensure this future.
While still young, Martin regularly participated in the rituals, songs, arts, and traditions of the local Kwakwaka'wakw and North Coastal culture. This formed the basis of his knowledge of the Northwest Coast style, and he applied it to design, carving, and painting and lifelong song making. Martin was raised in the potlatch tradition practiced by the Kwakwaka'wakw, and all aspects of their culture.
Martin was a promoter of the culture in his later years, convening with other noted artists, such as Tom Omhid, Willie Seaweed and Dan Cranmer, in order to prepare novices for Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonies. He provided Ida Halpern, a Canadian ethnomusicologist, with 124 songs to help preserve his traditions for new generations.
Martin became a commercial fisherman at one point to support himself financially.
He would later marry Abayah Martin, also an artist, who specialized in weaving ceremonial curtains and aprons.
All his life Martin made songs, sang them and recorded them with the Hawthornes and others. He had an interest in music in general and in folksong. He learned and sang songs from other tribes, such as the Navajo, which he learned from his relative Bob Harris. The latter had met these other native peoples at the Chicago World Exhibition. Martin also learned Japanese folk songs from other Kwakwaka'wakw who had sailed to Japan on sealing vessels.
Professional life
As a boy Martin had been apprenticed as a carver to a paternal uncle. His stepfather Charlie James, a noted Northwestern artist, was his principal influence in honing his natural talent. Martin developed as one of the first traditional artists to adopt many types of Northwest Coast sculptural and painting styles. He carved his first commissioned totem pole in Alert Bay c1900, and titled it "Raven of the Sea."
Martin also restored and repaired many carvings and sculptures, totem poles, masks, and various other ceremonial objects. He gained fame for holding the first public potlatch since the governmental potlatch ban of 1885. He was awarded with a medal by the Canadian Council.
In 1947, Martin was hired by the Museum of Anthropology at UBC for restoration and replica work. During this time, Martin lived on the university campus, and continued to paint and carve small works during the night. [[File:Gwaxwiwe' hamsiwe' (mask of the raven man-eater).jpg|thumb|Gwaxwiwe' hamsiwe''' (mask of the raven man-eater) by Mungo Martin at the Seattle Art Museum]]
Later, Martin was hired in 1952 by the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, to create works of Northwest Coastal Art as display pieces and examples. The final result was a huge totem pole, carved out of cedar, standing 160 feet tall. It was raised in 1956 and remained standing until 2000. He also constructed Wawadit'la, a Kwakwaka'wakw "big house", at Thunderbird Park in front of the museum. During this time he and American anthropologist Bill Holm became fast friends and Martin designed a Kwak'waka'wakw big house on the coast in Washington State.