Ricky Tagaban, (b. 1990)
Denial, 2015
Mixed media
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 2015.27.1

Ricky Tagaban is a two-spirit Chilkat weaver from Juneau. In Tlingit culture, Chilkat weaving is practiced primarily by women, but male-bodied two-spirit people were historically welcomed to the practice as well.

“To make [Chilkat weavings] is a really prestigious thing, traditionally," Tagaban says. "So, for two-spirit people to be able to make Chilkat, it shows that we weren’t stigmatized. We actually had an elevated position in our society before colonization began."