Weaving Our Pride Ravenstail robe comes out to dance for the first time
- Jasz Garrett
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Ravenstail robe joins its sibling, the Chilkat Youth Pride robe, in celebration of culture, identity and sexuality
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
Chris Coulson, now 20, joined the “Weaving Our Pride” project a few years ago when he was still a teenager. On Tuesday, he was the first youth to wear the completed Ravenstail robe. Two of the five total mentor weavers involved draped the robe over his shoulders at Zach Gordon Youth Center, where a celebration for the newly finished robe took place.
Two years ago, Coulson was the first to wear the Chilkat Pride robe when it came off the loom.
He said he helped weave both the Ravenstail and Chilkat Youth Pride robes. It was mentor weaver Melina Meyer who first asked him to spin a ball of yarn. After that, he was hooked.
“I have really enjoyed it,” Coulson said. “My grandma was really excited when she found out I was learning how to weave because one of my great-grandparents was a weaver and she always wanted her family members to learn how to weave. So in a way, it felt like I was coming full circle.”
Meyer said while a robe is woven, it has its own life, but once it’s completed, it’s given new life.
“Almost like a child leaving a home or a bird leaving a nest,” she said. “It’s special to even see the Chilkat robe today, which I haven’t seen since we finished it a couple of years ago. You look at it a little bit differently. Other people have been able to use it for dance groups or graduations now so it has a different meaning.”
When the robe was tied around Coulson, community members and youth center employees gathered around him and told him they were proud.
The Ravenstail and Chilkat Youth Pride robes were created together by Native, non-Native, queer, straight, cisgender, transgender, allies, and all-identities youth, according to a description on the project’s website. The community project, spearheaded by master weaver Lily Hope, began in 2023. The Chilkat robe danced for the first time during the 2024 Celebration.
Coulson, who uses all pronouns, said the weaving experience at the youth center offered a safe place to explore gender identity.
Both robes were woven at ZGYC for youth to wear during Sealaska Heritage Institute’s biennial Celebration, graduations, new-names parties, coming-out parties, and significant Native and non-Native Pride events.
The Ravenstail robe had its own coming-out party on Tuesday when it was walked by Coulson from ZGYC to Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. Ten-year-old Silje Haven Marr said the Chilkat Pride robe kept her warm as she walked with Coulson to JDHS.
“I’m going to miss weaving on it,” Coulson said. “I actually have a little loom and some of the materials needed to start my own projects.”
“You already have two full-sized robes under your belt,” mentor weaver Laine Rinehart told Coulson.
Rinehart said for the last two months, he’s reflected on weaving the Ravenstail robe and thought “maybe it is time for it to go live its life, to be danced.” He said a big part of the project is seeing how youth have been involved.
“When you look at the stitches that are in it, you can see all the different hands that have worked in it,” Rinehart said. “And I think that’s kind of what’s magical to me about this robe, is that’s very apparent and upfront, and it’s very community forward.”
He said both the Chilkat and Ravenstail robes are symbols of great importance.
“It’s very fitting for our youth to feel welcomed and feel that they are worthy of walking with pride and status,” Rinehart said. “The beautiful part of being part of this project is being able to see that when our youth go out and dance, they know they are important.”
Both mentor weavers said watching the Ravenstail robe come to life on Tuesday at the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament was beautiful. In the school commons, Coulson and Marr handed the robes off to 15-year-old Kaiya Cropley and Brandon Kaayáak’w Gomez, 23, both members of the Eagle Raven Dance Group.
“It’s a beautiful robe, they did a wonderful job,” Gomez said while warming up for the dance. “I’m really excited to be able to help bring it to life, even more than they’ve already breathed into the blanket themselves with their weaving. So it’ll be really, really special to bring the Pride robes out together for the first time.”
The group performed a Raven Lovesong in the high school’s gymnasium, which Gomez said was fitting. He said many people he loves who are close to him are LGBTQ+.
The robes will now live at Zach Gordon Youth Center and Shéiyi X̱aat Hít Youth Shelter, where they will be available for future youth use.
“It’s just been amazing to have the weavers at Zach and to have this happen there, and have all these kids participating and watching it happen,” said ZGYC Executive Director Jorden Nigro. “It’s been a real honor to have it going on. We’re all so excited.”
Nigro called the two finished robes the highlight of her career and said she looked forward to future community projects with Lily Hope.
“One of the things that we really believe in at Zach Gordon is community, and I think what is so special about these robes is all of the hands and partnerships and connections that made it happen,” she said. “That really created something that a lot of kids can look to.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
