Grants

2000 Discretionary Fund Awards Recipients

Ringing Rocks Foundation completed the second cycle of its Annual Discretionary Fund Grant Program in June of 2000. The Grant Committee awarded $30,000 to 9 organizations from around the world, including Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Peru. The grant committee was made up of three members of the Foundation and three members of the Native American community. The grants ranged from $1,500 to $2,500 to promote indigenous projects across the globe.

Amigos de Sian Ka'an A.C. — Quintana Roo, Mexico

The Cooperative Muyil is starting an eco-tourism project in several lagoons and wetlands areas in the northern portion of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. The goal is to put tourism activities in a proper framework so that they can become a tool to reinforce cultural identity and to achieve community development. The current project is to develop three workshops about the main ecosystems in Sian Ka'an — tropical forest, wetlands, and coral reef — to educate the guides about the functioning of the areas, plant and animal life living in each area, including observation, identification, and natural history of the wildlife, sustainable use and conservation of natural resources, as well as reflections about their own Mayan culture and language.

Heiltsuk Dha'Yaci Society — British Columbia, Canada

The Dha'Yaci Society has completed 10 cabins in remote areas throughout the 6,000 square mile land claim. They are now in the process of compiling manuals for each cabin that document the tidal and inter-tidal waters, plants, animals, cultural and occupation evidence, weather, and recreation information. The Heiltsuk Ethno-botany project will allow college student science majors the opportunity to research the plants in the areas around each cabin in order to include the ethno-botany information in each of the manuals. This information will include identifying characteristics, harvesting, preparation, and medicinal uses for each plant. In addition, the researcher will compile a master list of plants and their uses in Heiltsuk traditional territory for use in the schools, cultural center, and treaty office.

Initiative Against Alcoholism in Native Communities — Cusco, Peru

In Colonial times, alcohol was introduced into many Native communities as a strategy of control, and has resulted in destruction of many societies, with affects ranging from alcoholism levels at 80% of the Anta community population, to cirrhosis affecting 60% of the population, to women and children becoming victims of violence and abandonment. A group of women, led by an indigenous healer/leader has begun a local initiative against alcoholism using indigenous therapeutic ritual practices as the first steps to stop the causes and consequences of alcoholism. In this way, they hope to reactivate the traditional community life and reinstall the ancestral indigenous organization, known as ayllu.

Na Na Kila Institute — British Columbia, Canada

Located in Kitamaat Village, British Columbia, Canada, The Na Na Kila Institute continues to design and implement policy and programs relating to the sustainability, protection, and renewal of all resources as a basis for community-based development. They foster change in the community through Cultural Rediscovery, Community Development, and Conservation Projects to preserve the Kitlope Watershed and the Kawesas Valley. Funds will be used to develop and implement the Watchman Program to manage the Kitlope Heritage Conservancy, continue the Kawesas Watershed Assessment, and develop the Na Na Kila Institute CD-ROM and web site.

Nawa Institute — Brazilian Amazon

The program will produce 300 copies of a 90 minute cassette tape of sacred Yawanawa healing songs. The cassettes will serve as a tool for the Yawanawa people to preserve and promote the value of their songs and traditional knowledge among the youth. As one listens to the prayer-songs, they prevent disease and catastrophes in the community. The cleansing and creation prayers provide knowledge and reconnect the people with their heritage.

The Shamanic Conservancy — United States

The operating funds available through this grant will allow the organization to concentrate on raising needed project funds. Current projects underway at the Conservancy include video documentation of a five-day intensive teaching by the President of the Union of Physicians of Traditional Mongolian Medicine at the Healing School in Vermont which is hosting a visit; video documentation of the cultural, spiritual, and healing traditions, especially of women, among the Gobi Desert people of Mongolia; establishing a video documentation/archive project in Iquitos, Peru; editing field footage from the Bru mountain people of central Vietnam; and a camera loan project to enable cameras to be used by researching working in authentic and welcome relationships with indigenous peoples worldwide, and assistance in preserving and editing the collected material.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian — United States

The Native American Expressive Culture Series presents programs that explore, document, and educate the NMAI's public about indigenous cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere. The grant will provide funding to one particular series, focusing on health and wellness which has been developed to present in-depth programming about Native beliefs and philosophies related to traditional healing practices. The series encompasses a wide variety of programming that shares prominent Native American lecturers, scholars, and healers who share traditional values and healing practices with the audience.

Te Whanau O Rongomaiwahine Trust — Aotearoa, New Zealand

This Maori tribe is taking control of their own health and wellness programs to produce new programs that work more appropriately for their culture. Their programs include taking the elders to thermal hot pools for exercise and massage, relearning traditional methods of preserving and preparing foods, growing traditional foods, Smokefree cessation programs, line dancing to Maori music, and youth working on the waka ama (traditional Maori canoe).

Worldwide Indigenous Science Network — Maui, Hawaii and China

WISN has many on-going programs dedicated to promoting traditional knowledge and encouraging dialogue between western and indigenous scientists in order to address social and ecological crises. This project enables research about traditional Chinese wisdom, culture, history, migrations, and languages from a tribal perspective. Visits to rural villages in Canton, Chengdu, Chonqing, Kunming, Guilin, Changsha, and Wuhan are anticipated to work with both elders and youth to allow them to find common ground in their tribal heritage and promote the continuance of traditions and traditional knowledge.