Lily Hope is a Chilkat weaver, artist and teacher based in Juneau (Photo courtesy of Lily Hope)

A year-long Lingít arts initiative through the Chilkoot Indian Association pairs mentors with apprentices to develop their craft and strengthen traditional and cultural knowledge. KHNS’ Corinne Smith spoke with one mentor, Chilkat weaver and teacher Lily Hope, who is passionate about elevating ceremonial textiles to fine art.

Lily Hope is based in Juneau, with ties to the Chilkat Valley.

“Wooshkindein Da.áat. Yoo Xat Duwasaakw’ Yeil’ Nax Xat Sitee. T’akdeintaan Aya Xat. My Lingít name is ‘Wooshkindein Da.áat.’ I’m Raven T’akdeintaan (clan) from the Snail House. My English name is Lily Hope.”

Hope is a Chilkat and Raven’s tail weaver, teacher and fine artist. She’s the daughter of the late Chilkat weaver and multimedia artist Clarissa Rizal, and learned by her side from a young age.

“She was a Chilkat weaver, since I can remember 1986 or 1985 and had a pretty good career,” Hope said. “I was the middle child. So anytime she said, Can you help me do this thing? Stir this dye pot, wind this ball. Spin some merino wool, and cedar bark together. You want to go harvest cedar bark, all the things that she asked me, and I always said yes. Because it was the time that I could spend with her.”

Hope says she trained to be a professional actor, but in 2010, she and her mother taught a weaving workshop together. She says that’s when she was hooked.

“There’s no other textile in the world where you can weave a perfect circle,” she said. “And the creative chaos that you get to organize and Chilkat weaving is unlike any other thing I’ve done in my life.”

Her mother, Clarissa Rizal, was also a student of the renowned master weaver Jenny Thlunaut of the Chilkat Valley. 

Hope calls it a creative convergence with artistry and heritage in making a ceremonial textile.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it. It feels like meditation and creative expression and ancestral lineage, like, all woven together,” she said with a laugh. “So I’ve been a Chilkat weaver full time pretty much for at least a decade, now it’s 12 years, weaving and teaching and teaching and weaving.”

She says she’s honored to be a part of the Chilkoot Indian Associations mentorship program, and being a part of fostering traditional arts of the Chilkat Valley. 

“It feels like full circle from my mother’s lineage, learning from a Haines weaver Jenny Thlunaut,” Hope said. “I’m young to be a mentor weaver. But that I’m also carrying this lineage from Jenny and Clarissa. And I’m always looking for the next weaver teacher who will fill my shoes when I step into the spirit realm.”

She’ll be mentoring Haines resident Karen Taug in Chilkat weaving, working on craft and techniques to complete a child’s Chilkat robe. They met at Hope’s studio in Juneau earlier this month. 

“So she’s been spinning warp, and then dying yarns,” she said. “And the way that it starts is that we sit down together and summon the teachers from the other side, and we say, Jenny, Clarissa, we’re gathering hearing your name. We’re here to start the Chilkat dancing blanket — petite size, you know, like a child size — probably her grandson will get to dance it in the next few months when it’s done at the end of the year. And here we are, we’re gonna put in the first few rows of weaving and fly.”

Mentor Lily Hope (right) and apprentice Karen Taug begin the first two rows of her Chilkat Blanket (Photo by Scott Burton @sburtonsound)

Their apprenticeship will also incorporate Northwest Coast formline designs, and sharing clan stories and history.

“We use a two-strand finger twining basketry technique for the majority of the work in a Chilkat blanket. And then the magic is actually in these three-strand braid that join and hide the interlocking colors of these particular textile,” she said. “And that’s where the perfect circle comes in. That’s where we can shape ovoids and split us Raven beaks and Eagle head that we are painting with yarn.”

Hope says weaving is a slow art form. An adult-size Chilkat blanket can take anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 hours, and a typical ceremonial robe takes a full year.

Hope and the other mentors and apprentices will be documenting and sharing their process in blog posts, and at the end of the program, artworks will be showcased in a public exhibit.

(Editor’s Note: This story originally aired on March 24, 2022 but due to a technical error there was a delay in publishing on this website. We apologize for the delay.)