Lily Hope (Tlingit)
AWARDEE: Lily Hope
NATIVE HERITAGE: Tlingit
LOCATION: Juneau, AK
AWARD: 2021 SHIFT – Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts
DISCIPLINE: Traditional Arts
WEBSITE: lilyhope.com
SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram
PARTNER ORGANIZATION:
Goldbelt Heritage Foundation – BIO
ABOUT
Lily Hope was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska to full-time artists. She learned Ravenstail weaving from Clarissa Rizal, her late mother, and Kay Parker. She also apprenticed for over a decade in Chilkat weaving with Rizal, who until her untimely passing in December 2016, was one of the last living apprentices of the late master Chilkat weaver, Jennie Thlanaut. Because of this, Hope is deeply motivated to leave honorable weavers in her place. Along those lines, she is president and co-founder of Spirit Uprising, a non-profit dedicated to maintaining, recording, and teaching weaving with integrity.
Hope’s contemporary works in textile and paper collage weave together Ravenstail and Chilkat design. She is one of few designers of dancing blankets. She teaches both finger-twined styles extensively in the Yukon Territory, down the coast of southeast Alaska, and into Washington and Oregon. She demonstrates internationally and offers lectures on the spiritual commitments of being a weaver. Committed to co-creating as her mother was, she is constantly looking for ways to collaborate with other artists, often spearheading multi-community projects or managing campaigns, bringing the importance of weaving into the forefront of Alaskans’ minds, while highlighting the work of her peer Indigenous artists.
I think that advocacy, speaking up and using art as a platform for things like missing and murdered indigenous women, sexual and domestic violence, the disparity of income between men and women, women and motherhood or like artmaking and motherhood. I think that’s a huge thing.
― Lily Hope (Tlingit)
PROJECT
In her SHIFT project, “Protecting the Material Sovereignty of Our Indigenous Homelands”, Hope will mentor two weavers through intergenerational research, documentation, and advocacy for traditional materials with community and global sharing opportunities. This project directly addresses Indigenous land sovereignty as the artists research, advocate, and negotiate for mountain-goat hunts to occur in the spring/summer, highlighting climate change and the protection/preservation of cedar stands, critical for use in ceremonial regalia. The organizational partner, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, will coordinate and execute video documentation for this project.
Read more about the Goldbelt Heritage Foundation…
PARTNER ORGANIZATION
Goldbelt Heritage Foundation (GHF) is a non-profit organization established in 2001 by Goldbelt Incorporated to promote cultural activities and to administer the Goldbelt scholarship program. GHF supports social and economic development opportunities; advocates for the advancement, enhancement, presentation and promotion of Alaska Native culture, language and traditional arts; promotes culturally-responsive education and job training for its Alaska Native members; and documents and preserves knowledge of the region’s historic sites, supporting activities that benefit shareholders and shareholder descendants as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
