Cheryl Samuel is a multi-media artist with specialties in fabric, weaving, and wood turning. She was born in Hawaii and her birthplace is referenced in the present Kete Remembered, with the small island of Oahu represented by abalone inlay in the bottom of the bowl. Her career as a weaver began with studying the Polynesian weaving techniques before travelling and settling in the Pacific Northwest Coast where she discovered the complex weaving techniques of Ravenstail and Naxiin or Chilkat – two of the most intricate and complex weaving traditions in world art. Ravenstail and Naxiin/Chilkat robes and aprons were historically symbols of high status, often gifted to guest chiefs. Each robe, a testament to the skill of master weavers, demanded over a year of dedicated craftsmanship to complete.

Samuel is also a skilled wood turner which she often blends with weaving and inlays. She created unique challenges such as injecting the roots of trees with dyes and allowing them to grow for twenty years or more before cutting the tree and turning bowls with patterns formed by the dye.

The kete is a small purse or shoulder bag which carried personal items of the owner and was associated with their knowledge – family and cultural histories, all earned over a lifetime. It was commonly woven with flax with various grasses added for colour and pattern.

Gary Wyatt

Cheryl Samuel’s seminal 1987 publication The Raven’s Tail is recognized as an essential resource, meticulously documenting the techniques, patterns, and history of this complex art form. To begin her exploration, Samuel travelled extensively, visiting museum archives in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including institutions in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Copenhagen, and London. Her commitment to uncovering Ravenstail weaving was remarkable, especially given that at the time of her research, only a few examples were known to exist, and some of those were only fragments. By physically examining these robes and consulting archival images and paintings, she undertook a careful process of reconstruction, reviving a tradition that had nearly vanished.

Samuel’s pursuit of Ravenstail weaving, known as Yéil Koowú in Tlingit language, combined rigorous scholarship with deep collaboration. Like Bill Holm’s work with artists such as Bill Reid to illuminate Northwest Coast art, Samuel sought to bridge her research with the lived knowledge of Indigenous weavers. Her work began with partial and often mislabeled robes in museum collections, supported by historical sketches and visual records. These remnants told the story of a weaving tradition that predates the more widely known Tlingit Naaxein (Naxiin in Haida) or Chilkat robes but had disappeared from practice. Through hands-on experimentation and persistent inquiry, Samuel helped bring its intricate forms back into view.

Samuel’s contributions, while rooted in academic study, have also had tangible impacts, helping to revive interest in a practice that might have otherwise remained dormant. Her work not only documented the techniques and designs of Ravenstail weaving but also provided a roadmap for its revival as a living, evolving practice. Her decision to reconstruct Chief K’alyaan’s robe in collaboration with Indigenous weavers Delores Churchill and Ernestine Glessing is a testament to this dual focus. It demonstrates both her technical expertise as a weaver and her commitment to creating a tactile, visual connection to the past, one that bridges historical scholarship with contemporary cultural reclamation.

ND