In this two-part interview, Kim Shuck describes to Kakoli Mitra the geometrical and engineering principles on which her innovation, topological basketry, is based. She uses recycled paper instead of hickory bark, while still using the basketry technologies her Cherokee mentors passed down to her. When asked what her practice is in having invented topological basketry and engaging in this complex art form, her answer is that “the artefact… stresses the system, and I’ve always been told that my genetic identity stresses the system as well.” Many Native people who are expert weavers believe that they don’t know mathematics. Kim challenges this notion through her teaching of topological basketry, so that basket weavers realize the sophisticated skills underlying this ancient Knowledge-Technology-Practice (Knowtep). She explains the colonialist way in which basketry has been talked about (women’s work, primitive) and counters this reductionist thinking, for basketry involves expertise in at least: systems biology and botany (understanding how and when to harvest raw materials without harming the local ecoweb), materials science and chemistry (processing raw materials, including dying and adhesion), engineering and mathematics (generating blueprints for and tangibly manipulating materials into functional, strong objects of utility), sociology and history, and art. For Kim, imparting the Knowtep of topological basketry is a pedagogical tool for teaching algebra, geometry, and other quantitative skills. Mathematics isn’t necessarily numbers and symbols written on a page. Weaving a basket is in actuality implementing mathematics.