Post #747370 by akjefferson on Sun, Jul 19, 2015 12:47 AM

On 2012-04-09 08:20, bigbrotiki wrote:
Do you mean biographical info beyond what is written in the Book of Tiki? An academic paper on American mid-century Tiki carvers would be a very valiant endeavor, since they were not seen as artists worthy of being noted back then. So unfortunately you can't just go to a library and look them up. The best source would likely be local newspaper archives, most anything ever published on them exists in small news clippings. Or to try to find relatives, which in the case of Guanko is not easy, because you'd have to look in a Californian immigrant community.

I would love it if more folks would build on my research and go deeper into the history of American Tiki carvers, some (like JP with Barney West) have done it and have come up with amazing finds. For me the big enigma is still Andres Bumatay.

Andy Bumatay? Bumatay is a Filipino name it is Andy's fathers mothers maiden name. His fathers birth name was Bacilio Narte, he changed his last name to Bumatay and left the Philippines, and settled in Hawaii, where he married my fathers mother, she was full-blooded Hawaiian and they had five children. Andy was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters. His middle name is Kanuha which is his mothers family name and he was born in Kona, Hawaii. The news clipping dated on March 4, 1964 was taken 24 days before I was born. My name is Andrea Kanuha Bumatay. I came across this website a few days ago and was extremely surprised to learn that my fathers carvings are valued by so many. Its the first time I had ever seen the clippings. I was born and raised in Seattle Washington. My dad loved the Evergreen State, he bought a home and settled there, it is also his final resting place. While I was growing-up my dad was always carving something I didn't pay much attention to where his tiki's were going, or who they were going too. When I was around four years old I remember going to Hawaii and seeing my dads tiki's displayed at a popular park, they seemed to be very tall and people were taking pictures with their families standing by the tiki's but my memory is vague. My father worked for Todd's shipyard for as long as I can remember until his retirement in 1996. He was 64 when he died. I am the oldest of four kids. My parents divorced when I was three, my dad moved back to Hawaii and then he sent for my sister and I, I was about four then. We didn't stay long because we missed our mom, so we moved back to Washington. He married a Filipino woman, my stepmom her name is Magdalena when I was eight and they had two sons. I was close to my dad he was well respected, and was the type that you didn't mess with. Never in my life did I disrespect my father, he was very strict with my sister and me, she was a year younger then I. He loved playing Hawaiian music, he had his own band that played at a Hawaiian night club not far from our house, it was called "Golden Doors", this is when I was about five or six. One time he didn't have a babysitter for my sister and me, so he brought us back stage and I remember singing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" in front of everyone. Every evening before dinner, if the weather was nice he sat on the porch and played his ukelele or his guitar singing Hawaiian songs. Bumatay is the original spelling of our last name and Bumatai is my cousins entertainment name, his name is Andy and he was a stand up comedian in Waikiki in the 80s & stared in a comedy show called "All in the Ohana in the late 80s. I hope this gives you a little idea about who he was...

Andrea K Bumatay- Jefferson
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