Telling a story is like planting corn.  Both provide a glimpse of where we came from, where we're currently at, and where we're trying to go.  Like telling a story, there are endless ways to plant corn.  Some farmers use 40+ row planters and some use digging sticks.  Some use recently engineered seed while some use seeds that have been in their families for countless generations.  Regardless of approach, all farmers strive towards a harvest that will provide nourishment for their community- whether it is economic, physical, cultural, or spiritual.

Similarly, the stories and visions in a community can be as varied as the corn varieties we plant.  From blank walls to blogs to vacant city lots communities are using their voices to reveal stories of the past while creating a vision for the future.   The common thread of these Horagewi, or Stories we tell together, is that they all seek to restore ecological, cultural, and social balance with each other and the environment.  While this means something different to every community, each approach is essential to regaining the collective health of our local, regional, and global communities.  The horagewi on this site share a few of these stories.


BIO
Brett Ramey (Ioway) has worked with Indigenous communities for over a decade to reinforce land-based knowledge through food sovereignty and public art projects.  He is the first generation of his family raised in a city away from his mother's reservation and the small farming community in Northeast Kansas where his father's family has farmed for five generations.  He  

He was the founding Director of the Urban Lifeways Project within Native Movement, a Flagstaff, Arizona-based organization that supported Indigenous youth leadership development and cultural and ecological “sustainability” programs.  More recently Brett returned home to the Kansas where he co-taught courses on traditional foods and climate change at Haskell Indian Nations University titled “Growing Change: Next Generation Responsibilities, Food Sovereignty, and Climate Change.” and worked to integrate western and traditional foods/medicines as complimentary healing strategies for cancer- both through his work as a Tribal Health Liaison with the University of Kansas and in his own lived experience.  As of Fall of 2017, Brett lives in Seattle and works with Partnerships for Native Health at the University of Washington.

Though Brett's work has often been based in urban, grassroots Native communities it is not to the exclusion of rural knowledge, institutional partnerships, or multicultural relationships. His work is grounded in reclaiming local traditional foodways, while acknowledging that his family and tribe have been engaged in industrial agriculture for several generations.  Additionally, he emphasizes that food is not separate from art, language, cross-cultural and intergenerational interactions, and active resistance to the environmental, social, and spiritual degradation of communities.  The stories on this site are a reflection of that broader vision.