Donald Anthony Wadhams is a Kwakwaka'wakw artist based in Alert Bay, BC. Don has been carving for most of his life and has experience in both wood carving and jewelry carving. Don first learned how to carve wood from his uncle George Maltipi. 

 

Don quotes in an interview with the Port Hardy Museum Curator, “I learned wood carving from my uncle George Maltipi when I was 12 years old. He put a knife in my hand and said learn how to carve wis, so he put the knife in my hand and he drew an eagle and I finished that piece.”

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In 1992 Don was introduced to jewelry carving, taught to him by his uncle Lloyd Wadhams Sr. Jewelry carving quickly became Don’s primary practice and has been practicing it for over 40 years. His work is recognizable by his deep defined line work, a technique taught to him from Lloyd Wadhams Sr. Don works out of a workshop at his cousin's house. He quotes “ I could sit there and carve for hours and hours and never get tired. You gotta have a love for it, a love for the work. If you don't, there is no business in being in it.”