Created by Native and non-Native queer and straight youth after two years of mentorship and collaboration through the community project Weaving Our Pride, one Chilkat and one Ravenstail pride robe will debut at a Coming Out Celebration on March 24.<\/p>\n
The public celebration culminates the years of work by youth and mentors into an open house at the Zach Gordon Youth Center starting at 3 p.m. Afterward, the pride robes will be danced in at the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament at the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé.<\/p>\n
“We weave for identity, for healing, for community, for strength of spirit and mind,” said master weaver and project visionary Lily Hope, describing Weaving Our Pride. “The work is bigger than self, and creates lasting, positive change in the community.”<\/p>\n
In partnership with the Zach Gordon Youth Center, five mentor weavers — Rae Mills, Hanna Schempf, Ricky Tagaban, Laine Rinehart and Melina Meyer — the majority of whom are queer, taught Native, non-Native, queer, straight, cisgender and transgender youth the traditional art of Northwest Coast weaving.<\/p>\n
After the ceremony, the pride robes will remain at the Zach Gordon Youth Center and will be worn by youth at community celebrations including new-names celebrations, coming-out gatherings and pride events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two years ago, Weaving Our Pride brought Native and non-Native queer and straight youth together; they created two robes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3363,"featured_media":131467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1077],"tags":[556,74,765,874,627],"class_list":["post-131466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-news","tag-art","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-city-and-borough-of-juneau","tag-juneau","tag-pride"],"yoast_head":"\n