Aaron Baumgardner, 29, is an educator and cultural knowledge keeper of the Catawba Indian Nation, working to revitalize Rivercane Basketry. Harnessing his passions for ecological restoration, traditional artistry, and teaching, Aaron aims to cultivate cultural connection between people, place, and craft, to ensure those traditions are accessible for generations to come. Running Strong is proud to partner with Aaron and the Nation Ford Land Trust through our 2025 Dreamstarter cohort to support his restorative work. Already, these efforts are creating a new framework that supports both the artist and the Rivercane.
Aaron’s project, “Wąsa Wasáp KačachęɁ” is equal parts ecological and cultural restoration. On the ecological side, Aaron is working to develop a Rivercane Field Tool that will help catalogue, monitor, and prioritize rivercane stands for conservation and stewardship to restore rivercane as a thriving resource for artists. Already, Aaron has been able to refine the Rivercane field data collection tool so it will be ready to implement in the upcoming field monitoring season. With additional support from the Catawba Lands Conservancy, they have been able to develop a system where Rivercane data is overlaid with watershed and soil maps, which will be used to identify and mark areas for future restoration. This tool is essential to ensuring the future health of Rivercane will be protected for generations to come. Additionally, Aaron has received additional support to expand the project’s reach to develop a secure website where staff from multiple organizations can upload Rivercane field data, that can be directly accessed by artists, so they know where healthy, available Rivercane is for them to harvest and use.
Already, Aaron has hosted three successful community basketry classes and participated in two week-long intensive workshops with his mentor, Desmond Ellsworth. In Aaron’s work with his mentor, he has furthered his own basketry-making skills, learning two new forms of basketry. In his community classes, Aaron has been able to share his new skills with 12 community members over 11 hours of total workshop time.
In the coming months, Aaron is looking forward to another session with his mentor in Richmond, VA, where they will visit a Rivercane basket exhibit to study and map out traditional basketry patterns that he and other community members can learn from and reproduce to carry on these important traditions.
Aaron’s project shows us the importance of reciprocity in taking care of the land and our communities.
Inspired by Aaron’s work? Follow along for more stories from our Dreamstarter program and learn how Running Strong continues to support Native changemakers across Indian Country.
