We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ramon Shiloh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ramon , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
Finding my purpose wasn’t easy, and life threw challenges at me that I wasn’t prepared for. I grew up with a single mom who worked tirelessly to provide for my brothers and me. But everything changed when my mother lost her job. Without financial support, our situation became desperate. I felt the weight of trying to help my family, and without a mentor to guide me, I made choices that I thought would ease our struggles, but they only led me down a darker path.
Like many kids, I wanted to fit in and be accepted by my peers, but I also felt a growing responsibility to support my mom. Feeling desperate, I ignored her advice and made a choice that seemed like the only solution at the time. I was persuaded by someone I considered family, and feeling the burden of our financial struggles, I took a risk that ended up being a terrible mistake.
Imagine being locked up for something you thought was justified, only to realize too late that it was the wrong decision. At just 19, with so much potential ahead of me, I found myself in jail. The hardest part was losing my mother while I was still behind bars. That loss, combined with the regret I carried, changed everything for me.
But I want you to learn from my story. Through the pain, I eventually found my purpose. For over 30 years, I’ve dedicated myself to mentoring Native youth, helping them avoid the mistakes I once made. My journey in Food Sovereignty, Art, Publishing, Journalism, and public speaking has become a way for me to create new opportunities for young people with the potential to embody their “rites of passage” in a positive way. My goal is to guide them towards bettering themselves and the communities they’ll serve later in life.
Please, listen to those who care about you, trust your instincts, and remember that the decisions you make today will shape the rest of your life. I tell children, “I didn’t have the guidance I needed when I was your age, but I’m here to make sure you do.”
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Based in Portland Oregon, I am an award-winning author, illustrator, activist for Native youth, and multicultural chef. I was born and raised in Palo Alto California, among the Indigenous activist community of the Bay Area, a movement born from the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1970. My mother, June Legrand ‘Sukuybtet,’ was a radio broadcaster, storyteller, educator, and social activist who surrounded me with Native perspectives and spirituality. Her guidance and education provided me with a strong foundation of connection, one that I continue in my teachings today.
My core values center around building healthy and empowering relationships that reflect our foodway systems and the need to share Indigenous food knowledge in this ever-changing world. I have spent my life forging alliances with Native communities throughout the urban environments of Northern and Central California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest. For over three decades, I’ve volunteered at educationally focused non-profit organizations as a writer, artist, and instructor to create insights, applied knowledge, and distributable tools in the realms of Art, Food Sovereignty, Writing, and Spoken Word.
I successfully and effortlessly engage with youth in powerful learning exchanges, where the focus is on developing proposals and implementing deliverables to achieve learning objectives and goals. I want to help them identify the process, structure, and technique of storytelling in their everyday lives. Children have had a difficult time expressing their fears, accomplishments, or dreams in our socially-awkward-networked world. My goal is to guide them in trusting their instincts and taking ownership of their actions.
By utilizing this philosophy, I contribute perspectives that help expand youths’ knowledge and their overarching relationship with themselves. I have a unique way of connecting with both Native and non-Native learners through a series of interactive and experiential learning exercises that everyone can feel mutually proud of. Through different approaches, I skillfully encourage imagination initiatives that engage students and community participants alike. My ability to relate to diverse audiences while maintaining and enhancing my cultural integrity demonstrates my words in action and completes the lessons for the youths in whom I invest.
Look forward to my upcoming project, “Star Stories for Little Dreamers,” a graphic novel.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Cultural integrity is about embracing lessons that reveal universal truths. Whether through ceremony, food traditions, or language, connecting with our past is essential for making informed decisions about our future.
Listening is a crucial skill that seems to be in decline today. With divisive barriers and reactionary thinking, we often lose the ability to truly hear one another. With judgment at an all-time high, I believe we need to focus more on listening than on speaking.
I advocate for active community involvement, no matter the amount of time you can contribute. If you can spend hours on social media, you can also dedicate that time to physically helping those in need within your community.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
With an absent father, my mother left behind a wealth of guidelines, paperwork, audio tapes, and lectures detailing her beliefs, activism, and educational practices so that I could continue her work. After her death, I found empowerment through the legacy she created. Spiritually, I made it a priority to honor her by actively serving communities in the way she would have if she were here today.
For those who feel disproportionately disadvantaged in their work or creative pursuits, my advice is to identify an element of happiness that you discovered when you found something empowering and work toward a goal at a pace that feels healthy for you. Your efforts will be rewarded once you have a starting point you can trust. Go with the flow of your decisions, own the agreements you make, and never let anyone distract you from your goals. It takes time. But you’ll get there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ramonshiloh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ramonshiloh/
- Other: https://ramonshilohslameass.blogspot.com/
Image Credits
Food Display-Community Tour at Native Arts and Cultures Foundation/Robert Franklin (Diné)
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