Like most seven-year olds, Quannah Duquette was a little nervous about his first day of school.

But after just a few minutes, his mother Tasha Hubbard noticed that it might more than just the average jitters.

“He got a look on his face and I knew there was a reason for it." she said.

"I said, 'Is it because of your hair?' And he said, 'Yeah... I like my braids, they make me feel good but I’m just scared that I’m going to get laughed at.'"

It’s a conversation they’ve been having a lot lately. Hubbard says that since Quannah started to grow his hair out, people have begun mistaking him for a girl and he recently asked if he could cut it.

She asked her son to take some time and think about it before making such a big decision.

"A lot of men in my family wear their hair long so I understood that to be a source of our strength as a people. Also the historical context that for a long time that wasn’t allowed that children upon going to residential school had to have their hair cut. So I wanted my son to have long hair."