"Protection: Adaptation and Resistance" Closing Celebration

One of few designers of dancing blankets, her finger-twined, adapted formline, ceremonial Chilkat dancing blankets take years to complete. They document inheritance; weavings recording history like a book woven in yarn; a lineage of weavers, our nation’s current crises, and political issues. She learned Ravenstail weaving from her late mother Clarissa Rizal, and Kay Parker, both of Juneau. 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. She teaches both finger-twined styles extensively in person (and virtually since COVID-19), in the Yukon Territory, down the coast of SE Alaska, into Washington and Oregon. She also demonstrates internationally and offers lectures on the spiritual commitments of being a weaver. 

Committed to co-creating as her mother was, she’s constantly looking for ways to collaborate with other artists, often spearheading multi-community projects, or managing huge campaigns, like the Weaving Our Pride project and The History & Future of Yeil Koowu, highlighting over 20 indigenous artists and bringing these artforms to the forefront. She’s also a paper collage artist, bead-worker, indigenous fashion designer, and native storyteller.

Her work is collected by Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, Burke Museum, Museum of Nature and Man (Germany), The Eiteljorg, Alaska State Museum, and in the private collection of Jeffry Gibson, Bob & Rita Moore, and a dozen other museums and private collectors. 

Lily lives in Douglas, Alaska, with her five children.