Norman Tait was an accomplished Nisga'a hereditary chief (House of Luuya'as), master carver, and recipient of the British Columbia Creative Achievement Award for First Nations' Art. Recognized as a pivotal figure in revitalizing Northwest Coast woodcarving, Tait completed monumental public poles throughout North America and Europe, including major commissions for the Prince Rupert Indian Friendship House (1973), his home village of Gingolx (1977), the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and a 1992 pole raised at the British Museum in London.
Carved in 1972, this cedar pole is an early freestanding sculpture completed just prior to his first monumental public commission. The vertically stacked composition features traditional crest figures rendered in Nisga'a formline and painted with red, black, and blue-green pigments. At the top, a human figure wearing a ringed chief’s hat sits directly above a raptor crest defined by folded wings and carved primary feathers. The lower registers feature stacked animal figures with carved ovoid eyes, defined snouts, and tucked limbs. Precise chisel work and adze tooling remain visible throughout the cedar surface, demonstrating Tait's disciplined control of three-dimensional form and classical Northwest Coast structural design.
Private Collection, Winnipeg
Norman Tait
Norman Tait was a Nisga'a carver, sculptor, and cultural leader born on May 20, 1941, in Kincolith (Gingolx) along the Nass River in British Columbia. Raised in a family of artists, he was the son of carver Josiah Tait and the brother of carver Chief Alver Tait. Tait attended residential school in Alberta before completing his secondary education in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. In his early adult life, he worked in mills and logging before committing to carving, eventually studying under the mentorship of Haida carvers Freda Diesing and Gerry Marks.
During the early 1970s, Tait conducted research into historical Nisga'a artistic conventions, museum artifacts, and oral histories to revive distinct regional carving practices. In 1971, alongside his father, he carved and raised the first Nisga'a totem pole erected in the Nass Valley in over fifty years. In 1977, the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology presented a solo museum exhibition of his work. Beginning in 1978, he became a member of the Northwest Coast Indian Artists Guild, participating in editions of silkscreen prints that expanded his production beyond wood sculpture.
Throughout his career, Tait completed thirty-nine totem poles and numerous sculptural monuments placed in regional and international locations. These included poles and site-specific commissions at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Capilano Mall in North Vancouver, the Field Museum in Chicago, and Bushy Park in London, England, which was raised in 1992. From the 1990s onward, he worked in regular collaboration with carver Lucinda Turner, producing masks, jewellery, and large-scale public installations.
Tait was awarded the British Columbia Creative Lifetime Achievement Award for First Nations Art in 2012. In 2015, the West Vancouver Museum organized a major museum retrospective of his career, which also travelled to the Nisga'a Museum in Laxgalts'ap, British Columbia. Tait died on May 21, 2016, at the age of seventy-five.
Major Fall Fine Art Auction
November 12 - December 3, 2026
661 Wall St, Winnipeg MB
(204) 255-5690
mayberryfineart.com
[email protected]
Contact us to make an appointment to preview this item or to sell similar works.
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| $100.00 - $500.00 | $10.00 |
| $500.00 - $1,000.00 | $25.00 |
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| $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 | $200.00 |
| $20,000.00 - $50,000.00 | $500.00 |
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| $300,000.00 - $1,000,000.00 | $10,000.00 |
| $1,000,000.00 - $2,000,000.00 | $25,000.00 |
| $2,000,000.00+ | $50,000.00 |
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