Barbara Drake, Chia Cafe Collective

Barbara Drake is a Tongva tribal elder and culture keeper. She is a member of the Mother Earth Clan, a group of three Southern California Native American women educators who have taught indigenous skills and culture to the community and various tribal institutions. Her project, Preserving Our Heritage, is a food bank of native foods collected, preserved, and processed for tribal elders. Barbara has organized intergenerational gathering trips that incorporate family, friends, and most importantly, children, to pass on crucial knowledge. Barbara is co-founder of the Chia Café Collective. She has helped create a living history garden in the city of Upland that depicts 500 years of people and their plants in the surrounding communities. Barbara received the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Heritage Keepers Award and the Aquarium of the Pacific Heritage Award.