67 www.CharlestonWomenPodcast.com | www.ReadCW.com | www.Instagram.com /CharlestonWomen Wanda Lenhardt, Tanaisha Johnson and Za’Mauria Smith. A family is constructed a lot like the famed sweetgrass baskets that decorate highways, homes and heritage sites all over the Lowcountry; both are made to be coiled so tightly that they could hold water. Charleston Women always aims to look between those tightly woven knots and unveil who the Charleston Woman is and uncloak what makes her so strong, so steeped in tradition and so inspirational. We travel down a lot of different paths to do that, but when looking into the art of sweetgrass basket-making, we are looking at our roots. We are looking at the very beginnings, the backbone of who we all are if we live in the area now. We are all some part of what was and what will come. The baskets are a tradition sewn into history and into the very heart of South Carolina with all it ever was and will ever be. Nearly identical to Shukublay baskets, which are native to Sierra Leone, the basket-making tradition arrived in the Lowcountry in the 1600s with West African slaves. The climate and landscape of coastal South Carolina and this part of Africa are remarkably similar. The sweetgrass basket A tradition of family and fable BY LORNA HOLLIFIELD Charleston Women in the Arts
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