Three years ago, Tláakw Sháa Chloey Cavanaugh says she “never thought” she would be creating art full-time and running a business. In 2020, she had a death in the family, and came home to Juneau to grieve.
“That grief can’t just sit, so I took that grief and digitized my grandfather’s carving templates — he was such a fantastic carver, musician, artist, and an amazing man to have known,” Cavanaugh said.
Black and White Raven Company an Indigenous, queer, woman-owned small business, was born. Cavanaugh is Was’ineidi Tax’Hit, Eagle Wolf clan from Kake, Alaska and says her culture and community plays “a massive role” in her work.
“As a kid I struggled to process the world around me — I had adults telling me at a young age that I wouldn’t amount to anything — so these spaces of creating felt like a space of understanding, where I could get all of these things out on paper,” Cavanaugh said. “Where a paintbrush or a pencil understood everything I had been through, everything I hoped to be and hoped for my community.”
Her shirts, crewnecks and hoodies have phrases including “f— the government blood quantum,” “they stole more than land,” “Indigenous creature” and “Protect our sacred sites: Defend Yakutat.”
Cavanaugh attended Sitka Fine Arts Camp in her youth — where one of her paintings was selected by staff to be the following Sitka Fine Arts Camp promotional poster.
“These are more moments where I felt like I was making art or given space to have a voice and express myself,” Cavanaugh said. “When I was a kid, I saw these as life-saving spaces — growing up as a queer kid in Alaska, finding a voice, watching family members navigate addiction, the prison system, and their healing.”
A lot of Cavanaugh’s creative pieces involve growing up Indigenous and queer, and learning to gain confidence in her sense of self.
“The support from my community and other artists has been so overwhelming in the best way
Possible,” Cavanaugh said. “I am fortunate to be in a community where other artists always reach out to offer space, input, advice, and collaboration opportunities — this makes it so much fun to grow together and create and have these shared moments of ‘I get that.’”
Even if conversations may be tense and tough, Cavanaugh says we find ways to connect.
“I remember when I came out with my ‘kill the colonizer, save the Indian.’ design, and a few people were so upset: “How could you say that,” and I would say, how could someone say “kill the Indian, save the man,” Cavanaugh said. “Even in those moments of my art evoking raw emotion is a moment of understanding and connection — the opportunity to understand a different perspective that may not have been felt before, or may have had the privilege not to have had to reflect on that feeling before.”
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
