Cultural survival depends on the personal survival of those who belong to a culture. Each life presents unique challenges, and how we respond to those challenges often arises from what we learned in our childhoods. My maternal great-grandmother and grandmother prayed the rosary together daily until the elder passed at 107 years. My paternal great grandmother and grandmother came from the islands of Southeast Alaska, where the cosmology is inextricably rooted to the ecology of place. Their stories have protected my unique identity by extending the knowledge of my ancestors to me. In Our Lady Raven, elements of Northwest Coast formline appear, abstracted and chaotic, bound together by a watery, cobalt entity that glitters with a micaceous darkness and gives way to light. She is crowned but has no facial features— instead there is a circle, representing eternity, surrounded by an almond shape, representing watchfulness and divine favor bestowed on me by the women who came before me.