What does home mean to you?

I think home is your family. It’s wherever your family is, and where there’s space for storytelling and learning about where you come from. I was born in Salt Lake City, so that was home — but when I was five my parents separated and my mom moved to Oregon, so I lived there for a while, and that was home, too. I feel at home when I am anywhere at all, as long as my family is with me. I’m half Navajo and half Tongan, so when I’m with my dad, I get to learn about that part of our family, and our cultural differences from my Navajo side. And when I’m living with my with my mom and my aunties and uncles, I learn about my Navajo roots.

What about your room is special for you?

The world is very, very busy. There’s a lot going on, and I don’t want to have to think about too much when I’m in my room. I want to focus. So that’s why I like to keep it minimal and bare, and I don’t have a lot of stuff on the walls in my room. That doesn’t mean I don’t do crafts and have movie posters in my home, too – they’re just in a different room. My room is my oasis, my quiet space for focus. I find that the simplicity sort of closes off the noise.

What space or room in your home makes you feel most comfortable?

I can feel comfort and be myself anywhere in my home, whether that’s in the living room when I’m watching movies with my family, or in my room when I’m writing away on my laptop. It could even be in the garage when I’m working out or doing outdoorsy things, or in our sewing room when I’m drafting up projects. I always feel comfortable in my home, I don’t ever feel a stranger in my home – and I think that’s such a privilege.

What aspects of your heritage are represented by your home?

I guess during the pandemic is when I learned to cherish and rediscover what home meant to me. I learned a lot about myself in terms of where I come from and all the people who came before me on both sides of my family, through storytelling passed down through my grandparents. I learned so much about what my mom and my auntie had to live through, being raised on a reservation. And my mom grew through that, and decided to raise me in a different way, in a different environment. In our home, we keep our heritage alive in many ways, mostly through traditional Navajo craft, like beading, basket-weaving, and also rug-making on a loom upstairs. My mom recently started to learn how to weave rugs the traditional way, like her mom did – and it’s beautiful that she’s taken on that tradition while also teaching me, in the comfort of our own home.

What aspect of home is most important to you?

I’m very inspired by the matriarchal figures in my life, my grandma, my auntie, my mom – and they’ve had to sacrifice so much, and all of it is sort of surrounded in this idea of home. And I understand that everyone’s home is different. You know, safety fluctuates sometimes, especially with my mom growing up on the reservation. But I’ve had the privilege of safety in my life, and privacy is very important to me. Home is where you recoup, home is a place where you can replenish all that was lost during the day in terms of energy. And it’s somewhere you can cherish yourself and have a moment to yourself. I like to have a private life, and safety is a big part of that for me, too.

How does the safety and security of your home affect your life?

My mom made sure that I was always safe and secure, and I think that has affected my creative process as well, as far as not having to worry about the things my mom had to worry about at my age. It’s given me a lot of security and freedom and the space to be able to focus on storytelling.