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Haa Shagóoní robe-cutting celebrates completion of ceremonial Chilkat robe
- Jasz Garrett
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
‘We remain here among songs woven in the threads’
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
After two years, weavers Donedin Jackson and Shaawat gé Rae Mills celebrated the completion of their Diving Whale Ceremonial Chilkat robe on Wednesday afternoon. The robe was cut from its loom and lifted onto the weavers’ shoulders at the Goldbelt Tram Lower Terminal, where it was welcomed by song.
“Traditional women’s work is not often given the same platform or reach as the more prominent traditional practices and these collaborations signal that change,” Jackson told a crowd of more than 70 witnesses of the robe cutting ceremony.
She said Chilkat robes are important to show in public spaces “to show our work, to show our story, to share with other people, other places and other worlds.”
“While the world continues, we remain here among songs woven in the threads, healing ourselves with what our ancestors gave us through our hands, connecting us to a place, time and sense of self,” Jackson said. “Every person who witnesses this story carries a piece of it with them, ensuring that this work will go further in time and space.”
Attendees received a Chilkat tassel as a small gift for being present. The gifts were thigh-spun by Goldbelt Heritage Foundation apprentice weavers.
The robe, commissioned by Goldbelt, will eventually be on permanent display in a place of honor in the Mountain House at the top of Mount Roberts. For now it is on display in the tram’s lobby as it is finished with fur, handles and other details. The weavers’ last official day of work is set for Aug. 28.
Since the robe will be housed at the Goldbelt Tram, acid dyes were used due to the robe’s prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light. Robes traditionally rest in hand-carved bentwood boxes when not in use. The robe “will live as an education and demonstration for the public,” according to Jackson.
Naax̱éin, or ceremonial Chilkat weaving, is a traditional Tlingit art form with deep cultural significance.
“Naax̱éin ceremonial Chilkat robes aren’t just beautiful things that are created,” Jackson said. “They are memory. They are community. They are our living ancestors. They are born from history, songs and story. This is where children are taught who we are, where we come from, and how to care for each other.”
She explained that Chilkat weaving are coastal peoples’ historical documentation.
“Each design is intellectual property that carries a story, and each story is owned,” Jackson said, adding that traditional ceremonial weaving is held in the highest regard and whole family lines are tasked with the caretaking of robes that live for hundreds of years.
“If somebody tells a story they don’t have permission to tell, it is considered theft,” she said.
She noted the diving whale story and design have been gifted to the public at large so that anyone can weave, wear, or caretake one of these robes and cause no offense. The robe’s name is Haa Shagóoni, meaning “our most precious” in the Lingít language.
Jackson said Naax̱éin ceremonial Chilkat weaving is considered the most complex weaving practice since the warp hanging from the loom is non-warp weighted, meaning there is no tension on the ends of the warp as they hang from the loom.
“Every single stitch is placed by hand at the time of weaving and the tension comes from the weaver themselves as they weave,” she said.
Naax̱éin ceremonial Chilkat weaving is the practice done by the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples of the Northwest Coast whose territory spans from the coast of Alaska inland into Canada, into the Yukon and British Columbia.
Jackson is a citizen of the Teslin Tłingit Council First Nation in the Yukon Territory, Canada. She was named Shakóon or Ts’udugáxh. She is of the Eagle moiety and is a Yeił Koowú Ravenstail and Naax̲éin Chilkat weaver, teacher and a Tłingit language learner.
Traditionally trained as a ceremonial Northwest Coast textile weaver, she completed her apprenticeship under Wooshkindein Daa.áat Lily Hope in 2024.
Jackson partnered with Shaawat gé Rae Mills, who is Tłingit Kaach.ádi X’áakw Hít (Raven Freshwater Marked Sockeye House).
Mills was born and raised in Southeast Alaska, and adopted into the Kaach.ádi clan by Ḵaanáḵ Ruth Demmert at a young age. They witnessed weaving classes growing up, held by culture bearers such as Delores Churchill, Della Cheney and Cheryl Samuel. Mills apprenticed under Hope and Kay Parker.
They were trained as a Northwest Coast Traditional textile weaver and are experienced in Yéil Koowú Ravenstail, Naax̱éin Chilkat and cedar weaving. Mills was also one of five mentor weavers for the two Pride robes woven at the Zach Gordon Youth Center from 2024 to 2026.
“They are currently the first weaver documenting non-binary peoples in a full-size Yéil Koowú Ravenstail combination robe, woven communally at the university in Juneau, where they currently reside,” Jackson told the crowd. “Traditional weaving has served as a healing practice that has sparked a deeper knowing of the sacred, both within and without.”
Haa Shagóoní’s first dance event will be at the Northwest Coast Textile Symposium in April 2027, where Mills will dance the robe to life.
Mills also restored a more than 100-year-old robe with a similar diving whale design. Repairs included the strengthening of strings and reinforced braids. The repair work was done simultaneously while finishing Haa Shagóoní.
Both robes were witnessed together in dance after Haa Shagóoní was cut off the loom.
“We wanted to bring out this ancient robe woven by our ancestors’ hands to be able to greet the new robe being woven by our future ancestors’ hands,” said Jackie Pata, the first vice president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s executive council.
The ancient robe belongs to the Kiks.ádi clan. Its caretaker, Jerrick Hope-Lang, visited Juneau for Wednesday’s ceremony from Sitka, where the robe resides. He said Mills approached the restoration with care.
“She’s making it sturdy so it can be used in ceremony, not just like a static item, but something that can be worn,” Hope-Lang said. “And without her doing that work, it wasn’t stable enough to be worn.”
The robe was worn for the first time since 1962 this year for Celebration.
“It’s always a thrill when you can wear a robe, especially one that’s been restored and brought back home,” Pata said after wearing the ancient robe during Wednesday’s ceremony and dancing alongside Jackson.
Jackson said the ripple effect of Haa Shagóoní will be felt for generations.
Samantha St. Clair and Kenneth Willard, both 17 and tram employees, took their first steps as apprentice weavers over the duration of the project, learning how to thigh spin. Their work can be seen on the overlay dance fringe and bottom of the fringe.
“I finished the copper cones on there and there were like about 1,000 that I had to put on there by hand,” Willard said in an interview after the ceremony. “It took over three days.”
He said the experience was amazing overall and taught him a lot.
“It all started because we said we were bored around aunties,” St. Clair said with a laugh when asked how she and Willard started apprenticing.
She held out her first Chilkat woven headdress in the sunshine. St. Clair said she plans to keep it and looks forward to weaving a medicine bag or another headdress.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
