2018 IFIP LEARNING INSTITUTE

What does the Institute offer?

The institute is designed over a six-month period.  It starts with an in-person three-day learning experience, followed by a virtual group meeting, and in-person reflection and closing meeting.

The program is designed around four modules

April Retreat:

Grounding – context and importance of now, what is at stake locally and globally?

Exploring and learning – weaving Indigenous values when partnering with Indigenous organizations and communities.

In Practice – focusing on two or three different current issues to map out what strategy and practice look like when working on these issues.

October Retreat:

Reflections on learning – an opportunity to re-engage, share transformations and reflect on learning.

 Who is the Institute for?

The Learning Institute is designed for funders interested on deepening their understanding of how to effectively partner and support Indigenous Peoples directly and indirectly. We invite foundation staff and leadership responsible for funding programs, and anyone responsible for giving programs that impact Indigenous communities.  The Learning Institute will provide a safe space for reflection, deep listening, productive discussion, and learning. Our goal is to foster greater understanding of Indigenous Peoples by funders and philanthropy: their cosmovision, values, way of life, their rights as Indigenous Peoples, and to transform the systems that fail to recognize Indigenous Peoples as funding partners and as knowledge holders.

 Timeline

December 4 – Registration Open

April 11-13, 2018 – Opening learning retreat – Garrison Institute, NY

Week of July 9, 2018 – virtual meeting (date to be identified)

October 7, 2018 –Closing retreat in Santa Fe, NM, preceding IFIP’s 2018 Global Conference.

Dr. Myrna Cunningham, from the indigenous Miskito community of Waspam located on the banks of the River Wangki in Nicaragua.  After studying for her Master of Primary Education, Dr. Cunningham returned to her community of origin to work as a teacher. She then returned to school to study medicine and surgery at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, becoming the first Miskita woman doctor. In 1990s the first steps to establish the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast URACCAN were taken, in which Dr. Cunningham was the founding Chancellor from 1992- 2004. URACCAN has served as inspiration for many indigenous people of the continent. Dr. Cunningham  has been the Chairperson of the Center for Autonomy and Development of indigenous People (CADPI) since 2003, which is an organization working in the areas of intercultural communication, cultural revitalization, rights of indigenous women, climate change and its impact on indigenous people. Since 2005, Dr. Cunningham has been the coordinator of the Indian Chair (CII), which is composed of 60 indigenous scholars from 18 Latin American countries. This is part of a wider graduate curriculum offered by UII in 25 Associated Academic Centers designed to provide analysis, and conceptual contributions to knowledge, spirituality, world view, rights and processes of struggle of indigenous people. She has also been a member of the Board of the Global Fund for Women and advised the Alliance of Indigenous Women and International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI). From 2011-2013, she served as Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In 2012, Dr. Cunningham received an Award of Woman Distinction from non-profit organization MADRE.  In 2014, she was appointed as Special Ambassador of FAO for the International Year of Family Farming extending her position as Ambassador to 2016. She was Adviser to the President of the General Assembly of the UN World Conference of Indigenous People of the UN in 2014.

Dr. Cunningham is currently a member of the Board of Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), The Hunger Project, and a Trust Fund for Indigenous People, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF).  She serves as President of the Board of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous People of Latin America and the Caribbean and as Chair of the indigenous Pawanka Fund – Different ways of learning and knowing initiative, a fund that is committed to promote and revitalize traditional knowledges of indigenous peoples and indigenous intercultural philanthropy.

Tarcila Rivera Zea is one of the most recognized indigenous activists in Peru and the world. For more than 25 years she has been defending indigenous rights through her organization CHIRAPAQ, and her involvement in other networks and institutions. She has received awards of recognition from UNICEF, Ford Foundation, Sacred Fire Foundation, and the Minister of Culture of Peru for her distinguished trajectory and valued contributions to the promotion and defense of indigenous cultures and rights. She was a member of the Global Advisory Committee of the Civil Society of UN Women and was nominated member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for the period 2017 – 2019.

She is the founder and president of CHIRAPAQ, Centre for Indigenous Cultures of Peru, an association that promotes the assertion of cultural identity and the training of indigenous women and youth as leaders, many of whom now occupy public positions in their communities and local governments. Ms Rivera Zea is also founder of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA) and of the International Forum of Indigenous Women (FIMI), networks which promote the leadership and political participation of millions of indigenous women across the globe.

Melissa K. Nelson is a Native ecologist, writer, media-maker and indigenous scholar-activist. She is the President/CEO of The Cultural Conservancy, which she had directed since 1993. She is Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. Her work is dedicated to indigenous rights and revitalization, biocultural heritage and environmental justice, intercultural solidarity, and the renewal of community health and cultural arts. For over two decades Melissa has worked in the Native American food movement and since 2006 in international indigenous food sovereignty. Melissa is a Switzer Environmental Fellow and has received awards for films, community engagement, and experiential education. She publishes essays in academic and popular journals and books, and documents Native issues through AV recordings. She edited two anthologies, Original Instructions – Indigenous Teachings For A Sustainable Future (2008), and Keepers of the Green World: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Sustainability (forthcoming). She has served on the boards of Earth Island Institute, Bioneers, and the Center for Whole Communities. Anishinaabe, Cree, Métis, and Norwegian, she is a proud member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Jim Enote is a Zuni tribal member and director of the Colorado Plateau Foundation and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center. He serves on the boards of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Grand Canyon Trust and previously the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and is a senior advisor for Mountain Cultures at the Mountain Institute. He is a National Geographic Society Explorer; a New Mexico Community Luminaria; and an E.F. Schumacher Society Fellow.

Jim’s service the past forty years includes natural resource, cultural resource, philanthropic, and arts work for many organizations including UNESCO, UNDP, International Secretariat for Water, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Mountain Institute, Zuni Tribe, and several major charitable foundations, museums, and universities. He has written in Heritage In the Context of Globalization; Science, Technology, and Human Values; Sacredness as a Means to Conservation; Mapping Our Places; Indigenous People and Sustainable Development; A:shiwi A:wan Ulohnanne, and Redrock Stories, to name a few. Recent short pieces include: We Cannot Live by Sentiments Alone, The Museum Collaboration Manifesto, Buyer Beware, What I Tell Boys, and Please Don’t Call Me a Warrior. In 2010 during the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference Jim was awarded the first Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology. In 2013 he received the Guardian of Culture and Lifeways Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and in 2016 received the Hewett Award for leadership and service to the New Mexico museum community and for achievements in the museum field.

Jim is also a home builder, firewood hauler, traditional bow hunter, artist, and farmer. He lives in his work in-progress home at Zuni, New Mexico.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION 

Program Costs: $3,000

The program fee will cover:

➢ A three-day learning retreat in April 2018. This includes:

A rich learning experience by a cohort of Indigenous faculty

All course materials for the learning retreat and throughout the 6-month institute

Meals during the learning retreat

Some ground transport

2 nights of lodging, whether you choose a single or double room

➢ Access to virtual meetings

➢ Closing one-day retreat in October 2018, which includes:

Facilitated reflection

Reading materials

Meals

Some ground transport

One night of lodging in Santa Fe

These prices do not include airfare to and from the retreats.