Weaver Lily Hope peers through materials while discussing the Giving Strength Robe project, a collaborative effort meant to honor survivors of violence, Friday, April 12, 2019. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

Weaver Lily Hope peers through materials while discussing the Giving Strength Robe project, a collaborative effort meant to honor survivors of violence, Friday, April 12, 2019. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

There are new plans for the weaving project to honor violence survivors

A companion piece and other efforts are in the works

A collaborative weaving project is coming together and expanding in scope.

Weavers worked this week to create a border for a crowd-sourced robe meant to honor survivors of gender-based violence and talked about a planned companion piece for the not-yet-finished traditional garment.

“It will either be a child-size robe or a dance apron,” said Lily Hope, the award-winning Tlingit weaver and teacher, who is helping to lead the project. “If we end up with a guardian-child team, then both of them are wrapped in our strength, the strength of all these weavers.”

The exact pattern of the Giving Strength Robe is not yet decided, but 54 squares made by Ravenstail and Chilkat weavers are in Juneau and ready to be used in the robe meant to honor survivors of violence. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

The exact pattern of the Giving Strength Robe is not yet decided, but 54 squares made by Ravenstail and Chilkat weavers are in Juneau and ready to be used in the robe meant to honor survivors of violence. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

The Giving Strength Robe is a project featuring 54 and counting 5-inch-by-5-inch squares made by Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers from throughout the U.S. and Canada. It’s the inaugural effort of planned nonprofit Spirit Uprising, which intends to help perpetuate Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving.

[Weaving project honors survivors of violence]

Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving are complex art forms traditionally practiced by Northwest Coast Alaska Native peoples, and make use of hand-twined textiles.

Hope said making the project something with multi-generational impact would be a positive response to the often multi-generational effect of abuse.

Ursala Hudson, Hope’s sister, who was visiting from Colorado to assist with the project this week, said weavers shared the stories behind each of the robe’s squares, and it helped underscore the prevalence of domestic violence.

“Everyone here is someone who has been affected by it,” Hope said.

Most people, they said, are only one or two degrees removed from a survivor, even if they don’t realize it.

“At first, I was like, ‘Oh that’s something that affected my great-grandmother,’” Hudson said. “Then, I said, ‘Wait, and my grandmother, and my mom, and me.’ I had to be honest with myself.”

She said it was an odd feeling to realize how commonplace domestic violence is. Half of Alaska women experience intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both, according to a 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey.

Hope, Hudson and weaver Patty Fiorella of Douglas worked on the robe Friday at the Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies (AWARE) shelter and said it is their hope that’s where the robe will come together. That is their work space because once the robe is completed — possibly this fall — it will be gifted to AWARE, Juneau’s gender-inclusive shelter for survivors of gender-based violence.

Ursala Hudson, Lily Hope, Anastasia Hope and Patty Fiorella work together on the Giving Strength Robe Friday, April 12, 2019. Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

Ursala Hudson, Lily Hope, Anastasia Hope and Patty Fiorella work together on the Giving Strength Robe Friday, April 12, 2019. Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)

The weavers said they are still accepting help with the project and would encourage experienced weavers interested in helping to email info@spirituprising.com.

People who would simply like to bring their good intentions and sit with the robe are also welcome, Hope said. Typically, work will be underway at the shelter from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sundays. Additional weekday weaving sessions will be shared on Spirit Uprising’s website.

Help can also come by donating to the project’s crowdrise page —GoFundMe for nonprofits — and Hope and Hudson said enough has already been raised to purchase materials for the Giving Strength Robe’s companion piece. The cost of those materials was $450.

While finishing the robe ahead of Domestic Violence Awareness Month — October — is the goal, the inclusion of a companion piece means other ideas are also being considered.

[Did Juneau’s pine trees come from the north?]

“We’ve also talked about Celebration 2020,” Hudson said in reference to the every-other-year celebration of Southeast Alaska Native people held in Juneau.

That date would provide ample time for the companion piece to be completed and line up with a planned announcement of Spirit Uprising’s next project.

Hope and Hudson said the organization’s next two projects are planned, but they were tight-lipped about what they will be.

“Not to be released until Celebration 2020,” Hudson said.


• Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.


More in News

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File
The Aurora Borealis glows over the Mendenhall Glacier in 2014.
Aurora Forecast

Forecasts from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute for the week of March. 19

State Sen. Bert Stedman, center, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, presides over a committee hearing Thursday. The committee on Monday approved an $8.4 million fast-track supplemental budget to address staff shortages in processing food stamps, public defenders and legal advocates for vulnerable residents. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Bill with funds to address food stamps backlog goes to governor

Legislature gives near-unanimous approval to hiring extra staff to fix months-long backlog

Hoonah’s Masters Bracket team poses for a group photo on Saturday after being crowned this year’s champs for the M bracket in the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament at JDHS. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
Hoonah crowned Gold Medal Masters Bracket champs

Hoonah’s Albert Hinchman named MVP.

President Joe Biden speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 23, 2023, celebrating the 13th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Recent moves by President Joe Biden to pressure TikTok over its Chinese ownership and approve oil drilling in an untapped area of Alaska are testing the loyalty of young voters, a group that’s been largely in his corner. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Biden’s moves on Willow, TikTok test young voters

A potential TikTok ban and the Alaska drilling could weigh down reelection bid.

Students dance their way toward exiting the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé gymnasium near the end of a performance held before a Gold Medal Basketball Tournament game between Juneau and Hydaburg. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
Over $2,500 raised for Tlingit language and culture program during Gold Medal performance

A flurry of regionwide generosity generated the funds in a matter of minutes.

Legislative fiscal analysts Alexei Painter, right, and Conor Bell explain the state’s financial outlook during the next decade to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Legislators eye oil and sales taxes due to fiscal woes

Bills to collect more from North Slope producers, enact new sales taxes get hearings next week.

The FBI Anchorage Field Office is seeking information about this man in relation to a Wednesday bank robbery in Anchorage, the agency announced Thursday afternoon. Anyone with information regarding the bank robbery can contact the FBI Anchorage Field Office at 907-276-4441 or tips.fbi.gov. Tips can be submitted anonymously.  (FBI)
FBI seeks info in Anchorage bank robbery

The robbery took place at 1:24 p.m. on Wednesday.

Kevin Maier
Sustainable Alaska: Climate stories, climate futures

The UAS Sustainability Committee is hosting a series of public events in April…

Reps. Tom McKay, R-Anchorage, and Andi Story, D-Juneau, offering competing amendments to a bill increasing the per-student funding formula for public schools by $1,250 during a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday morning. McKay’s proposal to lower the increase to $150 was defeated. Story’s proposal to implement an increase during the next two years was approved, after her proposed amounts totalling about $1,500 were reduced to $800.
Battle lines for education funding boost get clearer

$800 increase over two years OKd by House committee, Senate proposing $1,348 two-year increase

Most Read