[music] -Good morning.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

I'm muted.

Sorry, my app-- oh, and I'm connecting to audio.

I'm too eager to get started here.

Okay, I'm going to hit record now so we got to act proper.

All right?

[chuckles] Okay.

Thanks for reminding me.

Well, you know, Janice, Grayson did want to stay today and hang out with us.

You should show them the picture of Grayson weaving.

Oh, yes, I'll do that in just a moment.

Look at that technique.

Yes, he knows.

He picked it up.

He looks so happy.

He's already found his purpose in life.

Yes.

I think that out of the nephews and nieces, he might be the one to carry this on for me.

That's awesome.

That's gorgeous.

-Yes, you're welcome.

-Thanks Nikyle.

You're welcome.

I'll see y'all tomorrow.

-Okay, bye.

-Bye.

See you then.

Okay, well, that was class.

Come on.

Come on.

Definitely, you have to love wool and to work with it.

Which, even as a kid, I was like, "I want to weave."

Going to my grandma's house, she had this big basket by her loom, and I would sneak little pieces of it and take some from her.

I got caught, and she was like, "If you want to weave, watch me."

She's like, "I can explain it to you all day, every day.

We're only just going to be mad at each other, so just watch and observe," so I did.

I watched her start to finish, and that's how I learned to weave.

I'm here.

Even people here who had been indoctrinated to believe in gender roles and all that would be like, "Well, boys don't weave.

Get away from there.

Don't do that."

There were always outside things trying to discourage me from doing this.

I guess that's the beauty of being somebody like me is that they say that traditionally that was the role.

Our role was to take care of the people, take care of our elders, take care of the culture, take care of the sheep.

Whereas, the roles for the cis male and female was basically to procreate.

People like us, effeminate males, non-binary, but male at birth, tend to-- no, that should [?

], we tend to gravitate toward our grandmothers a lot.

I guess you could say maybe culturally and historically, we're also the bearers of culture, would you say?

Yes.

My dad said, "If this is who you are, just be your best, just be yourself, and don't compromise any of your morals or anything."

With my mom, it was a little different and she'll probably argue with me and say that it didn't go that way.

It's like her and I, we just never saw eye to eye when I was younger.

She would voice her opinion about it, but she came around.

She came around.

I do have to admit that our relationship is strained because of that.

[?]

Yes.

They say that the sheep is the sustenance.

It's not only food, it's not only wool, but like I said, it's also there to teach you life lessons, to help you grow.

We call that sheep is life.

When I was younger, I always thought it was just like, "Oh, money, money," like I can raise it and sell it.

Because of people's hate-- homophobia, I guess, is the correct term, became a very mean person.

You couldn't be around me without-- because it was a defense thing, so I was always mean.

I wasn't pleasant to be around.

As I was raising the sheep, it took me out of that space and took me out of that letting other people's hate and darkness cloud my own happiness.

I think they really brought me out of that shell and were able to show me that being myself is fine.

This is how we live.

This is where we come from.

Who is going to do this when we're gone?

Who is going to continue our life way?

That's a thought that I think about a lot.

It's the inevitable thing.

I do have some hope.

Growing up, we were always taught that we're going to lose our identity, we're going to lose our language, we're going to lose everything.

When you lose the sheep, that's when you're gone.

[music]