Brave Heart Fellowship
Champions for Change
CA Native Youth Collective
Remembering Our Sisters
Building Communities of Hope
Creative Native
Democracy is Indigenous
Ramiro (Miro) Hampson-Medina (he/him) is an Indigenous and Latino creative who grew up in San Diego, CA, and later graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. He has spent the better part of the last three years working in Indigenous communities, previously for the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center and currently for the Sycuan Tribe providing support for their youth.
About Miro’s Brave Heart Fellowship Project
Through his research, Miro discovered that there is limited accessible land for gathering in Sonoma County and a history of cancer clusters in places with excessive pesticide use, particularly among the California Indian Basketweaving Association and other local gatherers. To help address the situation, he partnered with the Sonoma County Parks Department to launch an ArcGIS Story Map that informs gatherers where pesticides have been sprayed. The Parks Dept. has also committed to continued learning, information sharing and collaboration.
To ensure the continued success of this project, Miro is working to establish the ArcGIS Map as a living document that Sonoma County Native Community Gatherers can easily access. His hope is that it will be updated anytime harmful chemicals are sprayed in regional parks.