What's in the bag, Ma?

I asked.

She smiled.

She seemed to anticipate my questions because she knew that was how I learned the best.

I'm picking sweetgrass, she said, showing me the contents of her red handkerchief bag.

This grass will make my baskets more beautiful.

I'll braid the strands together and weave them into the tops of my baskets.

Picking Sweetgrass is, in honor of my grandmother, Josephine Robinson.

She was this wonderful black ash basket maker.

And she was the first artist real artist.

You I knew that I could say this is a real artist.

You know, I knew she was somebody special in our family.

And she made these beautiful baskets her entire life.

but I wanted to tell her story because her story was so important to me.

and it's a story of, of, me and my grandmother, her teaching me how to pick sweetgrass for her black ash baskets.

And so just another way for me to to tell her story and acknowledge her again, you know, and her importance, in my life and my artistry.

The slice from PBS North