Henry George Williams was born January 28, 1961, in Alert Bay. At the Northeast Coast of Vancouver Island, Alert Bay is part of the Kwakwaka'wakw territory that reaches the adjacent mainland and covers the many Islands in between. The Kwakwaka'wakw - "speakers of Kwakwala" - or Kwakiutl nations, are the Northwest's masters of art and drama. They traditionally spent half their year living with family clans, and half the year within secret societies. These societies performed masked dances in winter ceremonies, which overshadowed the pageantry and spectacle of all the other potlatching nations of the pacific coast. In fact, the seclusion of the Kwakiutl's many inlets and island communities allowed Henry's people to continue potlatching in secret during Canada's oppressive ban of the potlatch from 1885 until 1951.

Henry inherited the family crests of Thunderbird from his father and Raven from his mother. He was first taught by Dave Robertson and Sam Shaugnessy, then Henry moved on to master his own creative interpretations of traditional Kwakiutl designs in red and yellow cedar. Always challenging himself to develop his skill and style, Henry is one of many Northwest coast artists who are preserving the carving traditions of his ancestors for future generations.