Iniciativas parceiras
Please also visit the website of our sister program Seeds, Soil and Culture at http://seedssoilculture.org.
Mokuloa Honua (Global Center for Indigenous Languages) is located in Hilo, Hawaii. Its mission is to reestablish the prominence of Indigenous language perspectives in modern contexts, in both Indigenous homelands and in a global Indigenous Language movement. As educators, they work from a strong foundation of fluency in mother tongues. Mokuola Honua is a gathering place – both physical and virtual – fostering collaborations on a wide range of Indigenous issues and strategies, all of which are grounded in strong language fluency. The Center’s collaborations bring together those from indigenous communities that have achieved considerable progress in revitalizing and normalizing languages and perspectives, but pay particular attention to budding community initiatives as well. The intent is to perpetuate a traditional understanding of “alaka’i a hahai” (leading and following) and “kaikaina a kaikua’ana,” (older siblings nurturing younger siblings). The Center teaches that “we all have the ability and responsibility to lead and follow at the appropriate times, in a manner that promotes efficacious learning and growth.” The Center focuses on research and cross-development of new knowledge, identification of a set of best practices for success in promoting Indigenous perspectives, and duplicability of these best practices by the broadest range of Indigenous communities possible. Mokuola Honua is linked with the A’ha Punana Leo Immersion Network and the Hawaiian Language College at University of Hawaii at Hilo as a holistic cultural and educational family of relationships and institutions.
Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) is a civil society organization with a vision to realize a just and prosperous life for all Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia. AMAN works locally, nationally and internationally to represent and advocate for Indigenous Peoples issues. With approximately 19 million members from indigenous communities throughout Indonesia, AMAN supports Indigenous people to have sovereignty over land and natural wealth, socio-cultural life governed by customary law, and customary institutions that maintain the sustainability of their lives as Indigenous communities.
Amazon Frontlines and Ceibo Alliance work in partnership to advance Indigenous collective and territorial rights, revitalize Indigenous cultures, and build viable solutions-based alternatives to rainforest destruction. Amazon Frontlines facilitates connections to the resources, tools, capacity and networks that its Indigenous partners need to remain effective guardians of their rainforest territories. Its interdisciplinary team of human rights lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, forestry specialists, and activists, live and work in the Amazon rainforest alongside their Indigenous partners. Ceibo Alliance is an unprecedented alliance of Indigenous nations – the Kofán, Siona, Siekopai and Waorani – that since 2014 has worked to create strong leaders, communities and organizations in the Amazon. Its reach extends across 80 villages and over 2 million hectares of primary rainforest.
The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) is a regional organization founded in 1988 by indigenous peoples’ movements in Asia. Based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, AIPP has 46 member-organizations from 14 countries. It is committed to promoting, asserting and defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights and human rights by strengthening the solidarity and cooperation of Indigenous Peoples, and through capacity building and articulating issues and concerns of Indigenous Peoples in Asia. AIPP works at the grassroots, national, regional and international level through its six different programs: (1) Human rights, (2) Regional Capacity Building, (3) Environment, (4) Indigenous Women, (5) Research and Communication Development and (6) Indigenous Youth. The AIPP secretariat implements these programs in direct collaboration and partnership with the members and its network – especially Indigenous women and youth, media communicators, and human rights defenders.
ANDES ocupa la Secretaría de la Red Internacional de Pueblos Indígenas de Montaña (INMIP) que se estableció en 2014 en una conferencia de agricultores Indígenas de montaña celebrada en Bután. La red tiene como objetivo apoyar a las comunidades de montaña de todo el mundo para que emprendan el desarrollo de capacidades en la adaptación al cambio climático a través del intercambio de conocimientos y experiencias de comunidad a comunidad, la ampliación de innovaciones efectivas y la creación de redes. Las metodologías y herramientas Indígenas utilizadas para permitir la investigación y los intercambios entre comunidades sirven como modelos inspiradores que apoyan y mejoran la biodiversidad, la integridad de los ecosistemas, la autonomía política y la resiliencia cultural. También tiene como objetivo obtener un mayor reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos Indígenas de las montañas por parte de los gobiernos y la comunidad internacional, y mejorar la comprensión de los problemas apremiantes que enfrentan y su contribución vital al desarrollo sostenible. Actualmente, la red INMIP comprende más de 20 organizaciones y comunidades miembros de 7 regiones montañosas que abarcan 10 países, que se unen para compartir conocimientos, información, mejores prácticas y experiencias, y para discutir formas de coordinar su participación en foros internacionales y comunicar sus iniciativas en el ámbito global.
ANDES holds the newly-established Secretariat for the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP) which was established in 2014 in a conference of Indigenous mountain farmers held in Bhutan. The network aims to support mountain communities worldwide to undertake capacity development on climate change adaptation through community-to-community exchange of knowledge and experiences, scaling up of effective innovations, and network building. Indigenous methodologies and tools used to enable community-to-community research and exchanges serve as inspirational models that support and enhance biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, political autonomy, and cultural resilience. It also aims to gain greater recognition of mountain Indigenous Peoples’ rights by governments and the international community, and improve understanding of the pressing issues they face, and of their vital contribution to sustainable development. Currently, the INMIP network comprises more than 20 member organizations and communities from 7 mountain regions spanning 10 countries, who come together to share knowledge, information, best practice and experience, and to discuss how best to coordinate participation in international policy meetings and communicate their initiatives in the global arena.
Founded in 2018, the Arctic Indigenous Fund is led by young Indigenous leaders from across the Arctic. It is a unique opportunity to decide how philanthropic funding should be distributed in ways that better support the needs of Northern communities and align with existing Indigenous-led efforts and leadership shaping the future of the North.
The non-profit AruSvati (formerly The Tengri School of the Ecology of the Spirit) was established in 1995 to protect the sacred Karakol Valley of Altai in Russia as well as its traditional knowledge and Indigenous culture. By 2001, the Tengri School established Uch Enmek Nature Park – named after the sacred Uch Enmek Mountain that is at the core of the valley. The park’s status as a protected area makes it possible to help guide the social and economic development of the Karakol Valley on the basis of traditional knowledge and to involve the local community and government in this process
The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe created the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP) in 2014 to preserve, protect, and perpetuate Nisenan culture. The Nisenan, whose name means “from among us” or “from this side,” are the Indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Their territory once extended from the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the north fork of the Yuba River, to the west side of the Sacramento River and the middle fork of the Consumnes River. Today CHIRP is working to return a portion of the Tribe’s ancestral homelands to its traditional caretakers, thereby creating stability and healing for the Nisenan people, the environment, and the Sierra Foothill community.
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center (CIMCC) was founded in 1991 to educate the public about the history, cultures, and contemporary life of California Indians and to honor their contributions to civilization. Since 2001 the CIMCC has implemented this broad educational mission from its 24,000 square foot facility in Santa Rosa, California, portraying California Indian history and cultures from Native perspectives. Through on-site and virtual programming, the museum showcases and encourages the present-day renaissance of California Indian cultures, affirming their survival and continued vitality in the face of extreme adversity, while providing opportunities for Native Americans to receive training and experience in museum direction, curation, design, and interpretation. CIMCC’s current programmatic priorities include the food sovereignty and climate resilience of Native peoples and communities in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino Counties.
The Caleb Scholars Program was founded in 2011 to support Alaska Native students from three Arctic regions: Norton sound, Northwest Arctic, and Arctic Slope. The fellowship program cultivates Alaskan Inuit leaders and advances Inuit-led conservation advocacy by providing community and cultural connection, professional development, mentorship support, and monetary support to individuals pursuing higher education. The program helps link traditional Inuit knowledge and Western academic practices for the benefit Alaska Native communities and the environment today and into the future.
For more than 20 years Community First Development has backed the aspirations of First Peoples in Australia through community-led solutions. They have worked with hundreds of First Nations communities on their top priorities, providing community development expertise, connecting First Nations communities with industry to share skills and knowledge; and creating two-way learning environments that unite First Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. With this backing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are building stronger economic and education outcomes, safer communities and healthier lives. As a First Nations-led community development and research organization, they put self-determination at the heart of all their work. Their efforts are driven by the need for a world in which all First Nations people are recognized, respected, and treated with equality.
The Covenant of Nations is revitalizing the original strong and respectful relationship between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Anishinaabeg Nation, and affiliated nations, to better respond to current-day challenges to nationhood, the environment, and the future of all these nations. This work includes coordinating a 2023 gathering of the traditional leaders, elders, knowledge holders and youth of these nations, so they can learn from each other, share sacred Indigenous knowledge and support the well-being of their nations and communities. This renewal of their alliances, and covenants of peace and friendship, is the first such gathering since 1840.
The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) is a Native-led organization based in unceded Ohlone land, also known as San Francisco, California. Since its founding in 1985, TCC has been dedicated to its mission of protecting and revitalizing Indigenous cultures through the direct application of traditional knowledge and practices, on ancestral lands throughout Turtle Island, Abya Yala (the Americas) and Moananuiākea (the Pacific). TCC works on a wide variety of community-based projects from sacred site protection to the revitalization of endangered languages and song traditions and the renewal of traditional Native foodways, including their podcast, The Native Seed Pod. In 2019 TCC purchased and began stewarding, a 7.6 acre property in the sovereign territories of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo peoples of Northern California, named Heron Shadow, which provides a haven for conservation and regeneration of Indigenous agriculture, Native Sciences and healthy lifeways.
Cultural Survival is an Indigenous led NGO that has advocated for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and supported Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures, and political resilience since 1972. Cultural Survival partners with Indigenous communities to advance Indigenous Peoples’ rights and cultures worldwide and their thematic focus areas include: Climate Change Solutions, Lands and Livelihoods, Cultures and Languages, and Indigenous Community Media, with Indigenous women, youth and relatives of marginalized genders as a cross-cutting theme.
Ekvn-Yefolecv is an intentional ecovillage community of Indigenous Maskoke people who have returned to live in their traditional land in current-day Alabama, practicing linguistic, cultural, and ecological sustainability. With only a handful of speakers remaining, Ekvn Yefolecv is revitalizing the Maskoke language through a youth immersion program in which Maskoke language is the sole medium of instruction. The curriculum centers on traditional agricultural and ecological knowledge and also supports new second-language learner adults. As part of their return to their ancestral lands, the Ekvn-Yefolecv community is building an eco-lodge called Vlahoke, an off-grid facility designed to host retreats, board meetings and spiritual gatherings, and will include a farm-to-table restaurant and a museum that centers on historical and contemporary quest for Indigenous justice.
Emerging Northern Leaders Initiative (ENLI) is helping the next generation of Indigenous leaders across the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Inuit Nunangat to establish resilient collectives with broadening networks and the human and financial resources to champion, develop, and implement environmental conservation and community well-being projects. A program of MakeWay, ENCI adopts a holistic and community-driven approach to empower Indigenous leaders by fostering collaboration, skill development, and cultural competency. Their strategy focuses on creating inclusive environments where emerging leaders can connect, learn, and grow through collectively led support programming.
The En’owkin Centre was established in 1981 to preserve, protect and perpetuate the endangered nsyilxcn language and the culture of the syilx-Okanagan Peoples. Its adult education programs utilize traditional syilx methodologies, including land-based learning at their syilx Bush School, to engage eight syilx communities in learning their language. En’owkin Centre students can enroll in their nsyilxcn Language Fluency Certificate/ Diploma in partnership with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology which ladders into the Bachelor of nsyilxcn Language Fluency at the University of British Columbia. As an Indigenous cultural, educational, ecological, and creative arts organization, En’owkin Centre plays a lead role in the development and implementation of syilx-Okanagan knowledge and systems at the community, provincial, federal, and international levels.
FIMI is a network of Indigenous Women’s leaders from all around the world – Africa, the Americas, the Arctic, Asia and the Pacific – that come together in order to develop a common political agenda, build capacities, and advance the leadership of Indigenous Women. FIMI’s Global Leadership School gives Indigenous women the tools they need to defend and claim their rights and be better prepared for decision-making in various spaces. The AYNI Fund, FIMI’s philanthropic arm, is the first and only fund created and directed by and for Indigenous Women. The Fund supports indigenous women’s organizations and communities to fully exercise their individual and collective rights and their rights to buen vivir (good living).
FPCC is a First Nations-governed provincial Crown corporation with a mandate to support the revitalization of First Nations languages, arts, cultures and heritage in British Columbia. The organization provides funding, resources and skills development to First Nations, monitors the status of First Nations languages, develops policy recommendations for First Nations leadership and government, and collaborates with organizations to raise the profile of First Nations arts, languages and heritage in B.C., Canada and internationally.
Fundación Cotococha is assembling and testing a prototype of an affordable solar-powered canoe and recharging station for the Curaray river in the Ecuadorian Amazon, home to Indigenous Waorani communities. This model of low-cost solar-powered canoe, which would provide a sustainable alternative to polluting gas-powered canoes, was co-designed in 2022 through a collaboration between Kichwa-led Fundacion Cotococha (Iyarina Center for Learning), Arizona State University, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and two Waorani communities. Their goal is to eventually deploy the canoes across the Ecuadorian Amazon, revolutionizing how these riverine communities meet their mobility needs.
Based in San Francisco, California, Friendship House promotes healing, wellness and community resilience in the Native American community by providing residential recovery programs; workforce and business development opportunities; and youth, Elder and cultural revitalization programs. Their programs are woven from traditional healing practices and Indigenous values of shared responsibility for current and future generations. Friendship House currently serves an average of 3,000 Indigenous community members annually. They are developing a new initiative, called The Village SF, to construct a six-story service hub showcasing green design and culturally rooted programs, enabling them to more than double this capacity.
Since 2009, Great Lakes Lifeways Institute (GLLI) has engaged diverse grassroots community groups across the Great Lakes region and Canada to share skills, knowledge, and resources, in order to revitalize traditional ways of being. With the support of Elders and knowledge keepers, they are rebuilding traditional land-based practices and inviting community members of all ages to immerse themselves in the reclamation of their knowledge and power. This knowledge and power is reified through seasonal harvest camps, the construction of traditional cultural spaces, and ancestral watercraft. Their work empowers relation-based, culturally rooted Indigenous approaches to restoring a vibrant, sustainable, and equitable future for their people and all their ecological relatives.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse program (HNL), a project of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora Nations), works to keep the tradition of lacrosse alive across generations. The game of Lacrosse, or the Creator’s Game, is one of the Haudenosaunee’s most revered traditions as a celebration of health, strength, courage, leadership, and fair play, and spiritually as a “medicine” game. As part of their efforts to gain international recognition for Haudenosaunee sovereignty, and with provisional status of lacrosse for the Olympics, the HNL plans to participate in 2028 under their own flag as a world-recognized Nation State. As this unique opportunity approaches, HNL is preparing Haudenosaunee and Indigenous youth for international athletic competition and raising awareness and understanding of the traditional and cultural aspects of the game of lacrosse.
Hui Hoʻoleimaluō is focused on loko ia (Hawaiian fishpond) restoration in the ahupuaa (land division) of Waiakea on the South East Island of Hawaii. Traditional Hawaiian fishponds offer a sustainable way to increase access to local food year-round and also provide a way to connect families and communities with the land around them. Hui Hoʻoleimaluō engages students, teachers and families in the restoration and maintenance of Keaukahaʻs unique loko i’a (fishpond) and loko wai (anchialine pool) in a way that promotes the prudent use of Hawaiʻi’s natural resources, protects watershed systems, and supports resilience of the coastal environment.
ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) families in Hāmākua on the northeast coast of Hawaiʻi Island founded huiMAU in 2011 to enact their kuleana (responsibility) to care for and protect their kulāiwi (ancestral homelands). Today, through its ʻāina (land) restoration and cultural training programs, youth programs, and land-centered agroforestry projects, huiMAU is regenerating and sustaining the systems that nourish the Hāmākua community physically, intellectually, and spiritually, now and for generations to come. huiMAU currently stewards over 1,000 acres of ʻāina along the coast of Koholālele and in Pa‘auilo, where they restore Indigenous ʻulu (breadfruit) forests and foster safe places of refuge and learning. Their efforts are helping to transform the community’s dependency on external resources into an internally-abundant interdependency that promotes collective ola (health and well-being).
Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) is a global, Indigenous-led organization established in 2019 to support Indigenous peoples across the globe who are increasingly subjected to violence, criminalization and violations of their individual and collective rights, while the people inflicting this harm do so with impunity. IPRI is working to increase global awareness and advocacy on this issue. They have chosen to focus on countries with the most killings and human rights violations – Brazil, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, India and the Philippines – where they partner with local organizations and networks. IPRI also provides financial, sanctuary, health and legal support to Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders at risk around the globe. IPRI engages actively with UN human rights and Indigenous Peoples Rights mechanisms in advancing the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples by presenting and linking cases on the ground for global attention and access to justice.
Slow Food Indigenous Peoples’ Network (IPN) is a network of indigenous communities, partners and organizations working to bring indigenous peoples’ voices to the forefront of the debate on food and culture, to institutionalize indigenous peoples’ participation in the Slow Food movement and its projects, as well as to develop both regional and global networks. IPN organizes global and regional indigenous-led meetings which represent key moments for IPN members to meet, debate, exchange knowledge and food products as well as to raise awareness among governments and civil society on indigenous peoples’ issues.
Photo credit: © Nderim Kaceli, Slow Food Archive
International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) is a global community of funders who are advancing a budding movement in philanthropy that deeply values, supports and partners with Indigenous Peoples and their communities. IFIP helps to elevate and support Indigenous leadership while also advocating for direct funding to Indigenous led initiatives, organizations, and philanthropic funds. IFIP’s bi-annual conferences convene Indigenous leaders, IFIP members and visionary grantmakers for deep discussion on the most important issues in the field, from Indigenous women and Indigenous Peoples’ rights to climate change. IFIP educates its members and allies to practice a new paradigm of giving based on “The Five R’s of Indigenous Philanthropy” — Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, Relationships and Redistribution.
Kivulini Trust supports pastoralist communities in the rangelands of Northern Kenya to maintain their cultural and natural heritage, and to realize their aspirations for positive change. The organization works with the Turkana, Gabbra, Boran, Rendille, El-Molo, Burji, Somali, Garri, Samburu, Waata, Saakuyye, Daasanach and the Konso peoples of the region which encompasses over 100,000 square kilometers of gorgeous arid and semi-arid lands. The Trust values and endeavors to strengthen communities’ own capacity to effectively revive, practice, document, promote and transmit their cultural heritage. Kivulini’s programs mainly focus on (1) promotion and celebration of cultural diversities, (2) environmental management centered on rich Indigenous knowledge and traditional institutions, (3) support for local livelihood strategies that include pastoralism, fishing, and artisans, and (4) strengthening social cohesion and community interactions built around existing shared social and cultural heritage. Currently Kivulini works with nine ethnic communities in northern Kenya. At the broader regional scale, Kivulini works on land issues especially on securing communal grazing resources threatened by development projects. In all its project areas, Kivulini Trust has engaged local community groups, and especially women, to participate in the promotion of cultural expression, resource governance and sustainable livelihood.
The Klamath River Fund works to advance climate resilience, community resilience, and restorative justice within the Klamath River Basin, which stretches from Klamath Lake in eastern Oregon to the Northern California coast. The Fund was formed in 2024 in response to the removal of four dams along the Klamath River, the largest dam removal and restoration project in U.S. history, which will have significant impacts for river and ecosystem health, economic and workforce development, revitalization of Tribal and rural communities, and restorative justice to Tribes and Indigenous people who have lived along the river since time immemorial. With a 10-year timeframe following the initial dam removal, The Klamath River Fund increases philanthropic and public funding to the basin and facilitates grantmaking, strategy coordination, and technical assistance to support Tribal and local community-driven restoration and revitalization priorities.
NDN é uma nova expressão multidimensional do desenvolvimento e bem-estar liderados por comunidades Nativas. A missão e os valores da organização ‘Transformadora’ (‘Changemaker’) se originaram ao longo de sua vida e trabalho na Reserva Pine Ridge em Porcupine, Dakota do Sul (EUA). A NDN está sendo criada como um gerador nacional (e eventualmente global) de energia, ajuda solidária, sabedoria e imaginação na realização dos objetivos inerentes à obtenção da autodeterminação dos povos Nativos da América do Norte.
Land is Life is a global coalition dedicated to advancing the self-determination and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples across the world’s seven socio-cultural regions. It promotes dialogue and strategic action to achieve legal recognition and respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination and collective ownership of their territories, lands, resources, and knowledge. The organization provides direct support to grassroots Indigenous Peoples’ communities through their various programs. By investing in the strengthening of Indigenous Peoples’ governance institutions and community-led territorial and resource management, Land is Life helps ensure that traditional systems of decision-making are recognized and revitalized.
Hawai’i’s 1,000-acre Limahuli Garden and Preserve, one of five gardens of the National Tropical Botanical Garden whose mission is to enrich life through tropical plants, ecosystems, and cultural heritage, encompasses tropical ecosystems extending from sea level up to 3,330 feet. This verdant tropical valley, once home to one of Hawai’i’s earliest settlements, is a significant site for preserving the area’s rich cultural heritage. As part of this effort, Limahuli Garden is revitalizing the ‘Olelo (Hawaiian language), Mo’olelo (stories), oral traditions, and customary traditional practices of the Ha’ena and Halele’a communities surrounding the garden, protecting the valuable traditions of Limahuli Valley in perpetuity.
Ma’alob Kuxtal ich Abal Ha’ (Healthy Living in Abalá) is reviving Yucatan Maya ancestral knowledge about native bees and medicinal plants by establishing a community space in northeastern Yucatan that is focused on learning and teaching about meliponiculture. Through workshops about Xunankab bees (known as “the honey ladies”) and the medicinal plants that sustain them, they are connecting elder knowledge holders with Mayan families interested in nourishing this cultural and environmental heritage for future generations.
Meli Bees Network is empowering Indigenous leaders to gain technical expertise in agroforestry, meliponiculture (the breeding and management of native stingless bees), and project management through their Meli Fellowship program. This collaborative program, which supports Indigenous communities in Brazil and Peru, includes hands-on workshops, cultural storytelling, mentorship with experienced practitioners, and development of demonstration plots and pilot projects that use regenerative practices. The fellowship helps to foster reliable income streams while creating a network of changemakers who are driving their own sustainable development initiatives and advocating for the rights and interests of their communities.
Mesa Refuge offers creative residencies for writers and activists who are advancing national and global conversations about the environment, economic equity and social justice. Since 1997, Mesa Refuge has supported more than 1,000 emerging and established writers and activists. Mesa Refuge’s Indigenous Knowledge Holders Cohorts offer a unique opportunity for (elder) language keepers and knowledge holders and (younger) knowledge learners to share knowledge, culture and Indigenous language across generations in a sanctuary space.
Native Conservancy was established more than 20 years ago after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Since then, the organization has worked to preserve, repatriate and restore ancestral homelands, traditional food sources and subsistence practices, revitalizing Native culture, health and spirituality. Central to their work today is collaborating with community partners to build an Alaska Native regenerative kelp and mariculture economy that is grounded in Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty and self-determination. Native Conservancy’s efforts support resilient Native communities, promote Indigenous food sovereignty, and safeguard the last remaining wild salmon watersheds and ocean habitats. Photo credit: Ash Adams
Located along a ridgetop in North Central Massachusetts, Pequoig Farm is working to advance Nipmuc food sovereignty by building a healthy, robust farm ecosystem that provides food, medicine, land-based education, and cultural connection for the Nimpuc tribal community. In 2022, Pequoig Farm returned to Nipmuc stewardship thanks to a partnership with The Farm School, and their desire to uplift Nipmuc self-determination. Currently, Pequoig farm fosters connection to the region’s natural systems through cultivation, hunting, foraging, fishing, fiber arts, medicine-making, and ceremony. These efforts are addressing the long-term effects of colonization, enhancing health outcomes and strengthening food sovereignty.
Based out of the He Sapa (Black Hills) on Oceti Sakowin Territory, NDN Collective builds the collective power of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and Nations to exercise their inherent right to self-determination, while fostering a world that is built on a foundation of justice and equity for all people and Mother Earth. NDN Collective’s 100% Indigenous-led board and staff operates from Indigenous values, ideology and methodology, and works to bring their vision to life through organizing, activism, wealth liberation and rematriation of resources, power-building and narrative change. They aim to dramatically increase philanthropic investment into Indigenous-led organizations, with the goal of giving out $50M per year in grants and to create an Indigenous-led CDFI to move $100M of for-profit investment into projects led by and serving Indigenous communities. They are simultaneously building power and capacity with Indigenous communities to be able to absorb this new influx of capital and advocating for Indigenous rights and policy changes that will enable Indigenous Peoples and communities to thrive.
NDN es una nueva expresión multidimensional del desarrollo y bienestar comunitario liderado por nativos. La misión y los valores como organización ‘Transformadora’ (‘Changemaker’) se originaron a través de su vida y trabajo en la reserva de Pine Ridge en Porcupine, Dakota del Sur (EEUU). NDN se está creando como un generador nacional (y eventualmente global) de energía, ayuda solidaria, sabiduría e imaginación para alcanzar los objetivos inherentes al logro de la libre determinación de los nativos americanos.
NDN is a new multi-dimensional expression of Native-led community development and well-being. The mission and values as a ‘Changemaker’ organization originated through their life and work on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Porcupine, South Dakota. NDN is being created as a national (and eventually global) generator of energy, supportive help, wisdom and imagination in realizing the goals inherent in achieving Native American self-determination.
Niweskok, which translates to “dried seeds for planting,” “essence of life,” and “spirit” in the Penobscot language (one of five languages of the Wabanaki Confederacy), is a collaboration of Wabanaki food and medicine providers that are rematriating the Penobscot Bay region of Maine as an Indigenous foodhub. Niweskok rematriates Wabanaki lifeways through food production capacity building, their Wabanaki Rematriation School, a community apothecary, and birth and life cycle teachings. At the root of each community harvest, workshop and all curriculum materials is the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge through Wabanaki languages, history, stories, ecology and climate adaptation.
Founded in 2018 by Lakota chef Sean Sherman, NATIFS is dedicated to promoting Indigenous foodways education and facilitating Indigenous food access. They are building a North American food system that generates Indigenous wealth and improves health in Native communities. Headquartered in Minneapolis, their work includes developing social enterprises, such as the fine dining restaurant Owamni and the direct-to-consumer Indigenous Food Lab Market. They also run a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center and provide healthy, traditional foods at scale to institutions such as schools and tribal communities.
In Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, Ofrenda A’bunna is working to recuperate the ancestral lands surrounding the Arhuaco Reservation by buying the land back one parcel at a time. Thousands of acres have been returned to the Arhuaco people to date, all of which are collectively owned, and over 70% are dedicated to the regeneration of native forests. Arhuaco families use the remaining land to organically grow food, fibers, and medicine for their community, as well as coffee that provides income for their economic self-determination. Ofrenda A’bunna has developed a multi-generational plan, which includes traditional education taught in the Arhuaco language, to ensure this territory is cared for over the long-term.
ʻOhana Waʻa, meaning family of voyaging canoes, convened as a hui (group) in 2006 to promote the collective health and life of Pacific voyaging traditions. ‘Ohana Wa’a’s guiding philosophy, He moku he waʻa, He waʻa he moku (our island is the canoe, our canoe is our island), speaks to the interdependent nature of the Hawaiian people. In recent years, a heightened awareness of voyaging and its impact on Native identity and self-determination has increased interest in participation, programming, and education surrounding voyaging. ‘Ohana Wa’a is building its capacity to meet this rising interest, ensuring the continuation of Pacific voyaging traditions that serve to galvanize Hawaii’s Native peoples, providing healthy pathways towards human and environmental health, maintaining and advancing culture through native worldviews, and bringing hope to the rest of Hawaii and beyond.
Okinawa Ocean Culture & Environment Action Network (Okinawa OCEAN) is building on its twenty-year history of protecting the islands and oceans of Okinawa, Japan, and focusing its programs to serve the next generation of youth leaders. Its main activities include educating youth about traditional Ryukyu and Okinawan foods and food systems, providing free weekly bento lunches for children in need using 100% food waste from their islands, and organizing events for youth in career development and awareness of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals.
“Pawanka” is a Miskitu word meaning “growing and strengthening.” Pawanka Fund is an Indigenous led grantmaking fund that supports indigenous peoples engaged in promoting and protecting traditional knowledge, wellbeing, rights and self-determined development. Pawanka provides grants to community-led organizations for the recovery and revitalization of indigenous knowledge and learning systems in seven sociocultural regions of the world: North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Arctic, Pacific, and Russia.
Penobscot Nation – or Penawahpkekeyak, “the people of the place of the white rocks” – is one of the oldest continuously operating governments in the world. Penobscot Nation protects Penobscot People, culture and territory by promoting prosperity and success for all their people through economic and cultural opportunities that maintain the highest level of integrity, and preserve the cultural values entrusted to them by their ancestors. Penobscot Nation legally owns, protects, and cares for over 128,000 acres of land in Maine (just 2.2 percent of their ancestral homeland), combining Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science to foster the wellbeing of its animals, plants, and peoples. Penobscot Nation and Trust for Public Land are currently partnering to return nearly 30,000 more acres of land, known as Wáhsehtəkʷ, to Penobscot Nation in the near future. (Photo credit to Ally McDougal.)
Piegan Institute is cultivating new speakers and teachers of the Blackfoot language through its K-8 language immersion school, adult language revitalization program and alumni engagement projects. Whereas twenty-five years ago not a single child on the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana could speak the Blackfoot language, today Piegan Institute’s efforts are reviving the Blackfoot language, as well as its history, spiritual traditions, and Tribal protocols. Piegan Institute is also sharing lessons learned and best practices from their language school with Tribes throughout the US and Canada.
Officially launched in 2020, Podáali is the first Indigenous-led fund covering the Brazilian Amazon and is the result of over twenty years of reflection and collaboration within the Indigenous Movement of the Amazon to create its own mechanism to support Indigenous Peoples’ sustainability initiatives. In the language of the Baniwa people, Podáali is synonymous with celebration, reciprocity and the promotion of sustainability. The objective of the Fund is to strengthen the self-determination, protagonism, cultures and lifestyles of Indigenous Peoples and to promote the autonomous and sustainable management of territories and natural resources, aiming at the good living of Indigenous Peoples and of all humanity.
Qizhjeh Vena, which means ‘A place where people gathered lake’ in the Dena’ina Athabaskan language, has sustained the Dena’ina people for the past 10,000 years. Inspired by Dena’ina values of respect, integrity and sustainability, Qizhjeh Vena Alaska was founded to help people of all ages reconnect with nature, learn outdoor skills, and be guided to their own inner source and wisdom. Its long-running Quk’ Taz’ un outdoor leadership camp connects young people to their ancestral homelands, and the new Dena’ina Center for Sustainable Living will offer seasonal educational programs, retreats, and outdoor opportunities that challenge and inspire people of all ages and backgrounds.
REDCO is the economic development arm of the Sicangu Oyate and serves 25,000 Tribal citizens across the nearly one-million-acre Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Its mission is to revitalize the economy and culture of the Sicangu Oyate by creating sustainable economic opportunities that support long-term prosperity, self-sufficiency, and holistic well-being for the Tribe and its citizens. REDCO focuses on a broad range of initiatives that are both culturally and environmentally sustainable, including housing, business development, food sovereignty, and workforce training.
Over 3,000 acres of oak woodland, conifer forest, and grasslands known as The Folsom Ranch are being returned to the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, the Cahto Tribe at Laytonville, and the Potter Valley Tribe, in partnership with The Conservation Fund and Mendocino Land Trust. Located along a tributary to the Eel River in Mendocino County, California, these ancestral lands provide important habitat for wildlife, including tule elk and black-tailed deer, as well as spawning streams for endangered salmon and steelhead. The Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in collaboration with the Cahto and Potter Valley Tribes, will manage and care for the land. Together they will restore habitat, increase access to traditional foods and materials, and create economic opportunities on the land.
The purpose of Slow Food Ryukyus’ Ark of Taste Project is to preserve Ryukyu (Okinawa)’s food heritage for future generations by researching and documenting native plants and prepared foods that are specific to the area. They are interviewing elders, knowledge holders and producers throughout Okinawa Prefecture to learn about Ryukyu food culture, cultivation methods, tools, wisdom and way of life, all of which have drastically changed since Japan annexed the island about 150 years ago. The information gathered supports their efforts to register foods with the Ark of Taste living catalog of foods facing extinction. Slow Food Ryukyus is also preparing and disseminating a booklet to highlight eight Ryukyu foods registered with the Ark of Taste as of 2022, including Shimana (Okinawa Red Mustard) and Fu-nu-Iyu (sun-dried mahi-mahi).
Slow Food Turtle Island Association (SFTIA) is an association of Indigenous food producers and preparers, educators, and stewards of traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom, seeds, medicines, cultural teachings, and practices. SFTIA provides a platform for representatives from across Turtle Island, regardless of colonial borders, to interface with Slow Food International, the Indigenous Terra Madre network, and national Slow Food organizations, in order to ensure that Native foods are properly represented, and Native food producers and their communities will benefit.
Since its founding in 1956, the Saami Council has promoted Saami rights and interests in the four countries where the Saami people live: Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. As one of the oldest, still operating, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in the world, the mandate of the Saami Council is to strengthen the affinity among Saami people, to attain recognition for the Saami as a nation and as Indigenous People, and to maintain the cultural, political, economic and social rights of the Saami. The Saami Council also actively participates in international processes on topics such as Indigenous Peoples, human rights, Indigenous culture, and arctic and environmental issues.
Sawalmem, which translates roughly to “sacred water” in the Winnemem Wintu language, is restoring the ecosystem of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe’s traditional lands along the Lower McCloud River in Northern California and extending their land base at the foot of one of their sacred sites, Bear Mountain. Through this work they are actualizing their ancestral obligation to bring back their ecovillage, protect the waters, restore their salmon runs, conduct ceremonies, and raise the next generation of Winnemem Wintu in a safe, sovereign, and traditional way.
Established in 1996 and headquartered in the Philippines, Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples’ International Center for Policy Research and Education) works in fourteen different countries. It is a multi-regional and global organization that undertakes research, education and policy advocacy work at local, national, regional, and global levels for the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Tebtebba, a word used by the Indigenous Kankana-ey Igorot of Northern Philippines, refers to a process of collectively discussing issues and presenting diverse views with the aim of reaching agreements, common positions, and concerted actions. With this in mind, Tebtebba facilitates the participation of its partners in the processes which lead to the adoption of international human rights law and other international instruments, policies and agreements. These include the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the establishment of spaces within the United Nations, such as the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, among others. Tebtebba’s partners are now working in 15 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. The organization is an extraordinary global leader in protecting and advocating Indigenous rights within a holistic framework that includes a human rights-based approach, the ecosystem or territorial approach, knowledge-based and intercultural approach and gender sensitivity.
Founded in 1997, Te Toki Voyaging Trust (TTVT) utilizes all forms of waka (traditional canoes) as a platform for the revitalization of Māori/Pacific traditional knowledge, language, and culture. TTVT’s diverse education programs engage rangatahi (youth) in traditional paddling and sailing, with a strong emphasis on using the waka to develop the skills and identities of young Pacific people through wayfinding and leadership building. TTVT sees the waka as the vehicle through which maatauranga (traditional knowledge) and western science can meet to regenerate a culture of caring for the environment and sustaining people.
The Tule River Indian Tribe of California has a 150-year history of proud sovereignty over 55,000 acres in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Its 2,000 members are descended from the Yokuts, Tubatulabal, and Paiute and other Native People of the San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada, and Kern River Valley. The Yolumne Moh-Koch Pa’nan (Land Return) Project is an effort to reclaim and restore 14,673-acres of culturally significant land (currently known as Hershey Ranch) and an additional 2,350 acres (known as Carothers Ranch) for the Tule River Indian Tribe. The land abuts the Tule River Reservation and Giant Sequoia National Monument, making its grasslands, oak woodlands, and steep conifer forests an important wildlife corridor for mountain lions, black bears, California mule deer, golden eagles, wolves and resident and migratory songbirds. The Tribe plans to restore meadows and streams, reintroduce tule elk, beaver, and the California condor, which has been absent from this landscape for decades, and foster a healthy ecosystem for gathering traditional foods, medicines, and cultural materials to support Tribal members.
Washiw Zulshish Goom Than-Nu supports and promotes healthy lifestyles for the Washoe people and their families, instilling respect for the land, the water and the animals who dwell on the land. Their work includes developing Washiw Tahn-Nu Ung-Gal (The Peoples House); a place to gather, speak Washiw, pray, educate, conduct ceremonies, and remember the values that their ancestors held as the original stewards of their lands, which extends from the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada to the top of the Pine Nut Mountains in the east; and from Honey Lake to the north, south to Sonora Pass. Lake Tahoe and the upper reaches of the Truckee, Carson, and Walker Rivers are at the heart of Washiw homelands.
For over 25 years, the Yuchi Language Project’s (YLP) mission has been to restore the vitality of the Yuchi Language by creating a new generation of language learners through breath-to-breath immersion methods with master speakers and children. Yuchi is a linguistic isolate, or unrelated to any other language, and is critically endangered. Through its various programs, including a language immersion school, culture camps and language apprenticeships, YLP is developing a sustainable language community where the fullness of the Yuchi worldview, or yUdjEhalA, can thrive for future generations.