- The material I'm using is palmetto.
I use a specific sable palmetto
that's native to the area where I live here.
It produces very strong frond, so I'm able to pull very tight,
sewing the grasses, which is sweetgrass.
This is a grass that we find, native to this area,
that has been used for making these baskets
for over 300 years.
See, adding new grass,
when you put the new sweetgrass right here.
This art form of basketry originated from West Africa,
the Senagalese area and Senegambia,
some parts of the Ivory Coast.
My ancestors, who was brought from Africa as slaves,
found these grasses resembled what they used in Africa.
So soon I'll be ready to start adding bulrush.
- So you start out with bulrush, or pine needles.
- See, this is pine needles.
And then, this is sweetgrass, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- But I have the pine needles that started right there.
Actually, your mom did this section for me.
- I think I remember that.
- You think you remember that? - Yeah.
- Strong hands, right? - Mm-hmm.
- Mary: The slave owners came to realize
that these baskets were very important,
because many did not have basket makers
on their plantations, and they all needed containers
to hold the grains, or use in the rice field.
And this is one of the reasons why
this art form is still in place today,
because they regarded my ancestors
as the more valuable slaves,
so they didn't separate the family.
The technique is still very much the same.
This art form involved the total family.
Men traditionally harvested the grasses
from the marshes and the swamps,
and the women and girls made baskets.
So families were always together,
working in this tradition.
I learned this during the summer once
when school was closed growing up.
Every summer I practiced making baskets.
It was a way of life for my family.
After we had gotten through with our morning chores,
we would all assemble in my grandmother's front yard,
under big trees, and we would sit and make baskets.
And I'm very fortunate to say that I came from a family
that made beautiful baskets,
so it was stiff competition with everyone.
I never liked any bit of it,
because it was just time-consuming
and my friends in other communities,
they didn't have to make these baskets,
but my parents felt that they wanted us to learn.
So I learned all of the traditional designs,
basic techniques, and then I started designing forms
that are different from the traditional ones.
Contemporary designs with sweeping handles,
and flat baskets with grasses flowing from it.
And I would kind of keep my designs secret
until after it was made,
and then I would show it to everyone,
and they were just amazed.
I went to secretarial school in New York
and trained to be a secretary,
and that's what I did for 10 years.
Then my son, who was 18 months old,
was diagnosed with chronic asthma,
and I had to give up working to be home with him.
So I needed something to supplement my family's income.
And I remembered my mother telling me
when I was a little girl, "One day you might want to know
"how to do this, you should learn it,
"and it's good to learn more than one thing,
because you never know."
And then I thought, well,
I will sell my baskets that I had made,
a whole collection for my personal use in my home.
I will take them to the city market.
I was overwhelmed with the response.
They loved my work.
This was something new that I was introducing,
and that was kind of scary.
You know, whether or not people would see these as too far out.
And that was the beginning of my career as a basket maker.
And within a couple years, I got an invitation
to show my work to the Smithsonian Institution,
and people starting commissioning me.
I was very happy about that.
It's a feeling of my ancestors,
and how proud they would be if they were here.