Meet Cory

Cory Ettiene grew up on the border of the U.S. and Mexico, where local artisans lined the streets selling handmade wares under desert sun. That early reverence for craftsmanship never left her. While others collected souvenirs, Cory collected stories—textiles from Syria, Tunisia, India, and Morocco that whispered generations of skill and spirit into her backpack. She never tires of the Keats quote, "touch has a memory" and believes that handicrafts hold the memory of vanishing cultures.  
 

In her twenties, she circled the globe. In her thirties, she built a nationally recognised retail and media brand that championed female entrepreneurs and artisan makers.  Her work earned her a seat at the U.S. Senate, where she advocated for women in business and economic equity. But success never softened her hunger for purpose.
 

At 50, she retired from commercial life to pursue her calling: preserving Indigenous textile traditions and improving the lives of women on both sides of the craft. Now a PhD candidate in archaeology at Durham University, Cory’s research focuses on Amazigh women, symbolism in weaving, and how culture survives in the hands of women.
 

Through Heritage in Her Hands, she is stitching together a lifetime of experience—part scholar, part businesswoman, part storyteller—and building a movement to protect what’s sacred and offer what’s needed. She believes that in every handmade blanket lies the possibility of dignity, connection, and change.

​

​

​