Community

Indigenous Community Garden
at Golden Gate Park

2023 -present
1. The Indigenous Community Garden programs will integrate seven specific self-care behaviors — healthy eating, being active, monitoring, taking medication, problem solving, healthy coping and reducing risks - to reflect and reinforce traditional American Indian and Alaska Native cultural and spiritual values and practices at the core of Village SF’s holistic model.

2. Youth (12 – 23 years old) will gain traditional knowledge that helps foster positive self-identity, improves communication skills, and increases their interest in learning and preserving American Indian and Alaska Native practices and culture.

3. Elders will feel a greater sense of social connectedness, more appreciated, and an increased self-esteem/worth knowing they have helped preserve and ensure the survival of their community’s cultural values and food traditions.

4. The San Francisco Bay Area American Indian and Alaska Native Community will learn from youth, staff and clients engaged in our programming and many will integrate healthy First Foods in their personal lives.

5. The General Public will have access to newly restored open space and the opportunity to observe and learn from traditional Indigenous practices.

Beyond Land Acknowledgement

2021
The Asian Art Museum and Exploratorium are co-sponsoring a workshop that brings together members of various arts and cultures organizations who are committed to doing more than performative acknowledgements of the Ramaytush Ohlone land on which we are situated. Gregg Castro and Jonathan Cordero will be sharing best practices and discuss ways to move toward social action. The workshop will be hosted in the Exploratorium Bay Observatory.

Tree Planting in the Tenderloin and SoMa

2023-present
The ARO supported a grant with the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) to raise funds to plant trees in the Tenderloin and South Market areas of San Francisco. The Project fulfills our Ecology and Equity emphasis. Friends of the Urban Forest are working to provide employment opportunities for members of the American Indian population. The Street Tree Nursery will grow the trees.

Jonathan Cordero with Governor Newsom at the opening of the Street Tree Nursery in 2023.

Department of Public Health

2021
Along with other Native organizations, like the American Indian Cultural District, the ARO will be working with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to better identify and assess the health needs of American Indians and other Indigenous populations in San Francisco and to craft policy that addresses their needs.

San Francisco's Buried History

2019-2021
The ARO is working with the Exploratorium to develop and online walking tour of the "buried history" of San Francisco. Ramaytush Ohlone history and culture will be the subject of at least three different locations along the route located along the waterfront mostly south of the Exploratorium.

Land Acknowledgement

2020-2021
The ARO has and continues to consult with various individuals, groups, and organizations on the crafting of land acknowledgement statements, including Patagonia, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the National Park Service, and the University of San Francisco. Resources for the construction of land acknowledgement statements can be found here.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced legislation seeking to acknowledge the original Indigenous inhabitants of San Francisco. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)

Remove the Statues of the Colonizers!

2020-2021
The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO), along with community activists, educators, and supporters from around the Bay Area and beyond are taking leadership to remove two statues located in San Mateo County: the Junipero Serra statue on I 280 near Lakeview and the Gaspar de Portola statue in Pacifica. The ARO has been working patiently with Caltrans on their removal.