The Keepers of the Earth Fund (KOEF) is proud to announce that in 2023 we awarded over half 1,000,000 {dollars} in small grants to assist Indigenous initiatives on points associated to neighborhood empowerment for land defense and autonomy; the transmission of Indigenous Information; conventional medication and Indigenous spirituality; meals sovereignty and Indigenous economies; and the assorted types of resistance to mining for the power transition.
In complete, 68 Indigenous initiatives and collectives have been financed for a complete quantity of $512,267. The funds have been despatched on to Indigenous communities and collectives and Indigenous grassroots organizations in 21 nations.
At Cultural Survival, we worth cultivating long-term relationships with our companions. Subsequently, we awarded 22 grants to organizations that had acquired grants in prior years, representing one-third of this yr’s complete. Following our programmatic precedence of supporting Indigenous ladies and youth, 16 organizations led by Indigenous ladies and 9 initiatives both led by or immediately supporting Indigenous youth have been financed.
The Keepers of the Earth Fund is an Indigenous-led fund at Cultural Survival designed to assist Indigenous Peoples’ advocacy and neighborhood improvement initiatives globally. Since 2017, now we have supported 306 initiatives in 41 nations via small grants and wrap-around assist totaling $1,571,969. Grants go on to Indigenous communities, collectives, organizations, and conventional governments to assist initiatives designed by them and in accordance with their Indigenous values. Predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Survival makes use of a rights-based method in our grantmaking methods to assist grassroots Indigenous options via the equitable distribution of assets to Indigenous communities.
Meet our grant companions who’re working to transmit Indigenous Information to youthful generations.
Jamii Asilia Centre (JAC) – (Endorois), Kenya
Jamii Asilia Centre is an Indigenous-led group in Nakuru, Kenya, at the moment engaged on digital documentation of the Endorois tradition. The displacement of Endorois Peoples because of the institution of Lake Bogoria Nationwide Reserve by the federal government threatens their tradition and traditions. By conducting a sequence of interviews with native Elders, documenting historic websites, traditions, and information, and making a digital archive of the documentation, their purpose is to alleviate the hole that Western tradition has created between the youth and Elders. To make sure the sustainability of this undertaking, Indigenous youth are being skilled to function and preserve the digital archive.
Tuteayen tse sungün – (Mapuche Wiliche), Chile
Tuteayen tse sungün is a company of Mapuche Wiliche ladies who stay within the Willimapu territory and communicate tse sungün, a linguistic variant of the Mapuche in southern Chile that has been weakened by cultural and identification dispossession brought on by political and financial oppression. The group has been working in the direction of language revitalization in the neighborhood since 2020. With a grant from the Keepers of the Earth Fund, a language immersion boarding faculty will likely be created to coach audio system at totally different ranges in order that they are often future lecturers of their language.
Yimom Collective- Therapeutic Girls – (Maya Tsotsil), Mexico
Elevating sheep is a crucial exercise for Ttsotsil lifestyle of the Chamo’ Peoples, who use wool to make their conventional clothes and promote it as a uncooked materials to exterior consumers. Moreover, sheep manure serves as fertilizer and nourishes conventional meals methods. The Yimom Collective, made up of Maya Ttsotsil moms, daughters, and granddaughters, is engaged on an infrastructure undertaking for elevating sheep and bettering resting and grazing situations. Additionally they search to create areas for dialogue with different ladies to share information about breeding, feeding, and deworming and the kinds of wool and the artwork of working with it, in the end strengthening their community-run economies.
Affiliation of Retailers of the Pataxó Indigenous Park of the Coroa Vermelha Village (ACPIPA) – (Pataxó), Brazil
The Pataxó Indigenous Museum is linked to the Affiliation of Retailers of the Coroa Vermelha Indigenous Park within the Normal de Coroa Vermelha village within the state of Bahia. The Pataxó Museum sought to guard and disseminate their tradition; nonetheless, the undertaking, which had been run by the State, was shut down. In 2023, the Retailers Affiliation tried to reopen the museum, which had been cataloging cultural, symbolic, linguistic, and territorial parts belonging to their neighborhood. Their goal is to inform their histories beneath a brand new Pataxó-led management and from a decolonized perspective.
San Diego Agricultural Establishment – (Pasto), Colombia
The San Diego Agricultural Establishment is positioned within the Muellamues Indigenous Reserve within the Division of Nariño. It was based to make fundamental secondary training accessible in order that younger individuals can examine near their houses and neighborhood. With the assist of the KOEF grant, the college will proceed its long-time undertaking of constructing an ancestral home. The home will function an area for the intergenerational strengthening of Pasto tradition and identification.
Indigenous Cultural Affiliation from the Peoples (ACIP) – (Lenca), Honduras
A lot of the lands of the Lenca Peoples have been purchased up by migrant settlers from different areas to be used as espresso monocultures. ACIP, with the assist of the Keepers of the Earth Fund, seeks to ascertain a community of agroecologists to advertise and develop science rooted in ancestral Lenca information. As well as, some areas will likely be expanded for use as bedrooms, workplaces, and a warehouse in assist of the actions of the Indigenous College of the Peoples, an establishment co-created by ACIP and neighborhood leaders as a decolonizing undertaking that promotes buen vivir (good residing).
Runapacha Collective – (Inga), Colombia
In the neighborhood of Santiago, Putumayo, the Inga language is threatened. The youth and kids of the neighborhood now not use it, and migrant households coming back from Venezuela have misplaced it. With the assist of the KOEF grant, the Runapacha Collective will create didactic instruments that promote assembly round and studying the Inga language and chumbe (artisan weaving). They’re growing a sequence of information playing cards with the symbols of the material. As well as, information mingas (gatherings), workshops, and intergenerational dialogues will likely be held with the guardians of oral custom.
Ogiek Peoples’ Improvement Program – (Ogiek), Kenya
In Nakuru, Rift Valley, Ogiek lifeways and language are threatened by assimilation and eviction actions led by the State. Ogiek Peoples’ Improvement Group is an Ogiek-based Indigenous group that goals to advertise and strengthen Ogiek tradition. The undertaking, which is funded by a KOEF grant, will set up a museum to gather artifacts documenting Ogiek Conventional Information and related belongings through video and printed supplies. To make sure the transmission and sustainability of the Ogiek language, they are going to develop a curriculum for the youth together with an essay contest and a theater efficiency. The purpose of the undertaking is to create a central house the place Ogiek information, language, and tradition could be expressed to assist intergenerational switch of data.
Affiliation of Karão Jaguaribaras Peoples – (Karão Jaguaribaras), Brazil
The Affiliation was based in 2004 in Feijão village, Aratuba, northeast Brazil. Most of the languages and cultures on this area are in danger attributable to colonization. In response to this drawback, the Affiliation is constructing a communal house for a Ybutritê language instructing and studying laboratory that may assist language revitalization for the youthful generations in addition to strengthen the cultural identification of the individuals.
Kimi Ndii – (Mixtec), Mexico
The Kimi Ndii collective was created in 2011 by a bunch of textile and pottery artisans in Santa María Cuquila within the Mixteca area. As a result of lack of lecturers in the neighborhood with information of the humanities and the shortage of areas and packages to strengthen the Ñuu Savi identification, Kime Ndii hosts shows and workshops to take care of and revitalize conventional textile and clay strategies. This yr, with a grant from the Keepers of the Earth Fund, their work will likely be strengthened.
Regional Group of Indigenous Peoples of Zulia State (ORPIZ) – (Wayuu), Venezuela
ORPIZ was created in 1995 throughout the First Congress of Grassroots Indigenous Peoples of Maracaibo, Zulia state. It’s composed of organizations and communities of the Añu, Bari, Japreria, Yukpa, and Wayuu Peoples. Attributable to excessive poverty skilled by the communities, a Wayuu sustainable financial entrepreneurship undertaking was launched with the manufacturing of purses made from recycled materials. The intention is to switch the ancestral katto’üi approach to youngsters and younger individuals. As well as, plastic bag recycling campaigns are being carried out in colleges and coaching conferences are being organized in using info know-how for Wayuu youth and kids, the place content material is created with messages about cultural reminiscence, the Wayuunaiki language, and stewardship of Mom Earth.
