Beau Dick
Nationality: Canadian First Nations Affiliation: Kwakwaka'wakw
Born: 1955-11-23, Kingcome Inlet, B.C.

Beau Dick was born in 1955 at Alert Bay, a Kwag-guluth community 300 km north of Vancouver. After spending the first six years of his life in Kingcome Village, speaking only his native language Kwakwala, Beau moved with his family to Vancouver to attend school.

As a teenager, Dick demonstrated an interest in carving, after watching his grandfather, Jimmy Dick, and assisted him and his father in the carving and painting of the World's Tallest Totem raised in Alert Bay.

Dick first attempted to sell clam shells on which he had painted designs to tourists visiting Alert Bay. Tony Hunt understood Beau's desire to become a carver and asked the seventeen year old to move to Victoria and become his apprentice.

Once Dick moved back to Vancouver, he became influenced by the work of Doug Cranmer, whom he credits with helping him understand the importance of patience and pride in one's work. Dick also assisted Bill Reid in his Haida canoe project at UBC. Later, he worked with Robert Davidson on the Edenshaw Memorial House Front at Masset.