(Denise) When he started, some of the walls look like,
"Oh gosh, it's all rotten under there."
(Jeremy) I was doing a lot of internet research
to see if it's even possible or if it's even worth it.
How do you save a house that's
been deteriorating for so long?
His eyes would be swollen because he would be working
a floor and he'd be on the basement,
and the materials would come down into his face.
But I'd just pray and like, "Just protect them today."
You know? So they're okay!
(Denise) She would be very proud if she could see
not letting the house go down.
I feel her presence here. I know that she has made
things happen however way that she could,
because that's what type of mother that she always was.
(Jeremy) Ma's house is sometimes known
as the red house.
This is the house that I grew up in with my family.
It's a place for visitors, a place for meals and sharing.
(Kelly) Our grandmother, who everyone called Ma,
she lived here and she made this how she liked it.
(Jeremy) It just became really known as "Ma's house."
(Kelly) Her name's Loretta Silva, Princess Silva Arrow.
She was the princess that we loved.
Just always remember her being very glamorous, loving,
and wanting just to always care for us.
We miss her a lot.
(Jeremy) So Ma's house was built in the 1960s,
and the first people who lived here were Ma,
my grandfather, along with their six children.
(Denise) When I got married, my husband came here to live.
And then as I had children,
Kelly, Jeremy, and my other sister and her husband,
one of my nephews and their children.
This whole space here, there were so many kids
in the family.
I can remember there'd be a pullout couch here.
But we were always happy...
(Kelly) Yeah, there were always different
aunts, uncles, cousins.
(Denise) There's a lot!
(Kelly) During powwow time,
that's when it almost got to be
over capacity at Ma's house.
(Jeremy) Once we completed our newer house down the road
and we had to move,
and so for the past five years,
no one has spent time at Ma's house.
(Denise) It was very sad to see what a once vibrant place
just dying off.
(Denise) One day,
Jeremy came up with the idea,
what do you think of making Ma's house into a residency?
(Jeremy) You want to step more in the frame?
You can come forward a little bit.
You know, I can invite other artists
and just to keep our culture alive.
(Jeremy) My plan for Ma's house is that it's going to
have the entire front of the house dedicated to
communal arts events and history lessons and workshops.
(Kelly) And the goal is to have
a space for Black, Indigenous,
and people of color to have an art space.
So it'll kinda be like a guest house.
It'll also be my home permanently.
And it's just going to have a lot of different people,
I guess, in quotes, living there, all year round
to pursue their own art projects.
And so I want to have work on the walls
can be experimental or don't have to be for sale.
(Jeremy) What we're planning to do is have
work mounted that's 2D on this wall.
Just art shows that generate conversation around
equality, race, current issues.
I've just become so proud of being Shinnecockan.
I think if you would just ask someone from Southampton,
the Shinnecock Smoke Shop,
or the Shinnecock Powwow.
But one thing I really want to change through Ma's house
is to actually transform
the public perception of Shinnecock,
where we're a modern place,
where we have history being celebrated.
(Jeremy) The reality is on the East End,
people who grew up here their whole lives
are being pushed out.
(Kelly) We're constantly just trying to
hold on to what we have,
not let outside forces take over our lives.
(Jeremy) The residents of South Hampton
kept wanting more land. They kept pushing us
further and further back.
And so Shinnecock today only has
around 800 square acres of land.
As my grandmother said, "We're still here thanks to this
little peninsula surrounded by water,"
because there was just no more land
for us to be pushed back to.
(Denise) Nowadays, we try to say
Nation instead of Reservation,
because Reservation is such a colonial way of thinking.
It's the land of our ancestors.
We've always lived here.
(Jeremy) So many people that come here for the first time
think they're lost,
they don't think that there's going to be
any houses down here.
Here we are.
(Jeremy) There was so much generosity around Ma's house
when I first started.
(Jeremy) People were either sharing
the crowdfunding campaign
and people would be offering donations from individuals.
(Man) We have a check for you.
(Denise) Oh wow!
(Man) $500.
(Denise) Oh my goodness. Oh, that's so wonderful.
Different friends have come down.
Different relatives have also come and worked.
(Jeremy) Roger Waters, who was a Pink Floyd band member,
donated a beehive.
(Jeremy) Other people have been donating houseplants.
Some people have been donating greens that are edible.
Just here late at night sometimes,
it kinda feels like you're not really alone,
whether that's the creaky floors or
just the draft coming through different cracks in the house.
I like to also think that family members
who passed on but spent time at Ma's house
are still there in some form, kind of approving things
that are going on there.
Now that I'm taking care of the house itself,
I think that the house will take care of me down the line.