My Journey from Retail to Cultural Preservation

Welcome to the official blog of Heritage in Her Hands (HiHH) — a space where storytelling, sisterhood, and cultural preservation meet under the North African sun. I'm Cory, the Founder. I've been the founder of a Media Company, a Retail Company and now my proudest foundation, a Non-Profit.

Cory on location in Tataouine Tunisia.

My Journey from Retail to Cultural Preservation

Two years ago, I stood at a crossroads. After decades in retail and media as an entrepreneur, I sold my businesses and chose to follow the voice that had quietly whispered through every season of my life. It was the voice of a child who spent her summers poring over back issues of National Geographic, captivated by the women of the desert, their woven histories, and the uncanny familiarity between the Amazigh of North Africa and the Native American communities of my childhood desert home. The fabrics, the symbols, the silence, and the color — they spoke to me then, and they call me still.

Raised by a bold and curious woman who encouraged me to chase stories and collect memories, I was steeped in the wanderlust of heroines like Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, and Alexandrine Tinne — women whose love for landscapes and cultures inspired me to seek my own.

Why Amazigh Textiles Captured My Heart

My first MA, in the Philosophy of Religion, gave me the language to understand the theological frameworks that shape human lives. My second, in Greece, Rome, and the Near East, led me into the ancient world of the Garamantes, whose mastery of the Saharan trade routes mirrored the intricate networks of the women I would later meet.

In 2023, I finally returned to the land that first stirred my spirit — Morocco. There, in the nomadic desert villages, I found not just beauty, but belonging. The Amazigh women welcomed me into their homes and workshops, and I fell head over heels for the sisterhood threaded through every textile, every meal, every smile.

The Birth of Heritage in Her Hands

In 2024, I partnered with the Partnership for Heritage in Tunisia, supporting cultural preservation projects in Chenini. It was there that I got my first real taste of nonprofit work — and something in me clicked. I was hooked. The spark became a flame, and from it, Heritage in Her Hands was born. Now, as I begin my PhD at Durham University and build HiHH alongside it, I am more grounded — and more ignited — than ever. This is more than a project. It’s a movement. It’s a love letter to the women who came before me, to the women I meet today, and to the women yet to come.

Empowering Women, One Blanket at a Time

Through the simple, sacred act of giving a handmade blanket — woven with care by Amazigh artisans and passed hand to hand until it reaches a woman displaced by war, by climate, by loss — we do something quietly radical. We stitch a line of connection, a thread of memory, across continents. We remind her, and ourselves, that heritage is not just something to preserve — it’s something to pass on, wrapped in warmth and intention.

We don’t just make blankets. We build relationships. We listen. We partner with people and organizations rooted in community, those who speak the language of dignity and reciprocity. And through these partnerships, our blankets — and the stories stitched into them — reach women from refugee camps to resettled cities across the globe.

When women rise together, we all rise.

Heritage in Her Hands is proof of that.

Before we dive into the journey, take a moment to watch our short launch video. It's a glimpse into the heart of what brought us here — the threads that tie past to present, desert to home, woman to woman.