INTERNATIONAL FUNDERS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
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2019 IFIP LEARNING INSTITUTE

The IFIP Learning Institute supports funders to strengthen, develop and adopt funding strategies and practices that values Indigenous Peoples, respects their rights and incorporate their values in what and how donors engage with Indigenous communities.
The aim of the institute is to transform at a systems change level the funding sector to one of understanding and respecting of Indigenous Peoples, which adopts value based partnerships and better resources Indigenous Peoples’ efforts.
In offering this new learning space to the funding community, IFIP is committed to making this a rich learning experience for funders and Indigenous leaders (grantmakers and non-grantmakers), who will be participating as institute faculty. Indigenous Philanthropy questions funders’ assumptions and offers deep reflections that are necessary for a funding community that is committed to social justice and movement building.

IFIP Learning Institute Cohort and Faculty Celebrating

Opening retreat: A 3-day retreat from April 29-May 1, 2019 at Alnoba, Kensington, New Hampshire.
Virtual Meeting: Week of July 8, 2019 (Date TBA)
Closing retreat: September 20, 2019 in San Francisco Bay Area.
Institute community: Continue to learn and engage by joining the institute’s alumni to connect with peers who have embraced Indigenous Philanthropy values.
The Institute’s aim is to:
  • Foster greater understanding of Indigenous Peoples by funders and philanthropy: their cosmovision, values, way of life, and rights as peoples.
  • Support funders to adopt strategies that recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples and implement values-based practices, including a new paradigm of giving based on “The Four R’s of Indigenous Philanthropy” —Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility and Relationships.
  • Promote transformative funding practices that embody Indigenous values and human rights, and come from a position of respect for Indigenous Peoples and appreciation of their knowledge, diversity, leadership, and activism.
The Institute’s further goal is to:
  • Grow the capacity of the funding field to better engage with Indigenous organizations and further resource Indigenous led solutions and efforts to advance their rights.
  • Promote an active and engaged community of funders who is more effectively partnering and collaborating to support the indigenous movement.
Please see Program Design and Registration tabs for additional information on institute logistics.

Claire Poelking, Program Associate, Conservation and Sustainable Development at MacArthur foundation.

TESTIMONIAL FROM 2018 LEARNING INSTITUTE PARTICIPANT
Many philanthropic organizations increasingly understand the value of supporting indigenous efforts in spaces such as biodiversity and cultural conservation, climate change solutions and climate justice, sustainable development, and human rights. This is exciting and so important, but funding indigenous peoples, communities, and organizations comes with a unique set of challenges. All funders know the necessity of legal due diligence – but what of due diligence from a cultural or community perspective. All grantmakers are able to read proposals – but what of opportunities missed because organizations cannot write in the required language or access a steady enough internet connection to ever submit the proposal. The Learning Institute is an incredible opportunity to engage with indigenous leaders and peers on topics like placing charitable funding in historical context, the mechanics of grantmaking to indigenous groups, and the current potential of philanthropy to effectively and responsibly support indigenous people and their territories.
The Learning Institute, like IFIP, is purposeful in its mission and implementation but leaves space for unanticipated ideas, conversations, and interests. Moreover, it is welcoming and unpresumptuous about participants knowledge and experience working with indigenous peoples, which makes for a safe, non-judgmental learning environment. The relatively small group size means that everyone is able to contribute – at whatever level they are most comfortable. Rachel Humphrey is a terrific and skilled facilitator that seamlessly leads the group through various sessions from an introduction of indigenous rights and movements to an activity on the historical role of philanthropy and into a discussion of how, collectively, grantmakers can create a new paradigm to encourage reciprocal relationships between funders and indigenous groups.
There is a schedule, but not an agenda. We are asked to sit with difficult material, reflect on our opinions, and draw our own conclusions but with the invaluable input of indigenous leaders who willingly share their lived experiences. The Learning Institute will assuredly prove that reciprocal, honest relationships can — and more pressingly, should — exist between grantors and indigenous peoples.
My hope is to assuage any doubts that this is somehow a scripted, PowerPoint-driven lecture that either neglects or demands participation. Truthfully, the Learning Institute is what you make it – and it has tremendous potential to be a thought-provoking, authentic, and enriching three days that will (hopefully!) influence your grantmaking, build a strong cohort of like-minded colleagues, and challenge you on a number of professional and personal levels.
Who is the Institute for?
The Learning Institute is designed for funders interested on growing and deepening their understanding of how to effectively partner and support Indigenous Peoples directly and indirectly.
We invite foundation leadership and staff who are guiding, influencing, and responsible for giving programs. We encourage and welcome the participation of individual donors, social impact investors, and philanthropy advisors.
What to expect?
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.
Participants will be immersed in an indigenous learning atmosphere were deep listening, storytelling, and reflection are part of the methodology of the program.
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, workshop, and closing meeting. The program is designed around four modules as follows:
April Opening Retreat:
Grounding – Indigenous worldviews, movement, context and importance of now, what is at stake locally and globally?
Exploring and learning – Understanding how weaving Indigenous values strengthens transformation and the importance of partnering with Indigenous organizations and communities.
In Practice – Focusing on two or three different thematic issues to map out what strategy and practice look like when working on these issues.
September Closing Retreat:
Reflections on learning – an opportunity to re-engage, share transformations, plan your actions and design way forward.
The IFIP Learning Institute Facilitator
The IFIP Learning Institute will be facilitated in partnership with Justice Funders. IFIP has partnered with Justice Funders to bring some of the Harmony Initiative content and approach to the Learning Institute. Focused on supporting funders in their learning, action, and transformation, Justice Funders specializes in “going deep” to help philanthropic institutions take their values into specific, tangible action that supports equity and justice.
The facilitator will be Rachel Humphrey, Senior Program Director at Justice Funders. Rachel leads Justice Funders’ leadership development, coaching and consulting work, including the Harmony Initiative.
A core component of the Learning Institute is all Indigenous Faculty.  IFIP stands by our belief that to transform philanthropy, Indigenous Peoples must be the ones telling their stories, ideas, and vision for real transformation in the funding community. IFIP’s Indigenous faculty are local to global leaders with long activism, experience, and knowledge who are committed to supporting a new paradigm of giving, partnerships, and investing between indigenous peoples and the funding community
IFIP’s Learning Institute is a program that educates and builds the capacity of funders to become better funders and allies to Indigenous Peoples and in doing so propel a new paradigm of giving, one that respect and values Indigenous Peoples’ rights. In creating a learning experience for the funding community led by an all-Indigenous faculty, IFIP is living its values of “The Four R’s of Indigenous Philanthropy”- Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Relationships.
2019 Faculty Members:

Hussein Isack, the founding Executive Director of Kivulini Trust is a Behavioral Ecologist who hails from the Gabbra pastoralist community of northern Kenya. He has vast experience with the Issues of the region, with special interest in the promotion of indigenous knowledge and conservation in the areas of bio-cultural heritage. He has a long experience in field research on indigenous ecological knowledge, heritage management and offers practical support to small communities of Kenya in their endeavor to
maintain their living traditions and environmental relationships.
Hussein has served as the head of departments of Ornithology and of cultural heritage (respectively) at the National Museums of Kenya; lecturer, Department of Wildlife Management, Moi University, Eldoret and worked as an in-region Consultant, assisting the Christensen Fund developing programs with minority peoples in the Ethiopia-Kenyan borderlands. He is a member
of the Guiding Committee of the Pawanka Fund.
He holds a BA (Zoology), MA and PhD from the University of Oxford, UK; is an authority on the
study of the symbiotic relationship between the Greater Honey Guide (a bird) and honey hunters (human) and is a village elder in Gotu, Isiolo County where he lives.
Dr. Yolanda Teran Maigua is from the Kichwa nation from Ecuador. She is the Education Coordinator of the Indigenous Women Network on Biodiversity from Latin America and the Caribbean, RMIB-LAC. Currently she is a Research Faculty in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico, UNM. She has researched on Indigenous education, languages, Indigenous research and protocols in Latin America. Her current research focuses on culturally appropriate curriculum, Indigenous Peoples, biodiversity, traditional knowledge, business, repatriation and policy. She has been working in the creation of a strong relationship between the academia and Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, in collaboration with some UNM departments, RMIB-LAC and Indigenous organizations from New Mexico, she coordinated the elaboration of three Indigenous Peoples’ position papers that were submitted to CBD Secretariat in 2010. She was the Regional Coordinator for the Latin American Workshop on Indicators and is a member of the CBD Informal Committees for CEPA and for the implementation of Nagoya Protocol.
In the year 2016 Dr. Teran’s unique work in human rights of Indigenous Peoples from the globe was recognized by the New Mexico Legislature in Santa Fe City, in the United States.
In September 2018 she received the prize “El Procerato del Trabajo” from the Major of San Gabriel City, Ecuador as a pioneer recognition of her national and international advocacy for the Indigenous Peoples human rights and the Mother Earth rights.
Her recent publications include the “Cultural Foundations for Developing a Kichwa Language Program” written in English, Spanish and Kichwa and the book on “El Protocolo de Nagoya y Pueblos Indígenas” which is in Spanish, written as a legacy for Indigenous youth from Latin America and was delivered at COP 14 in Egypt.
Janene Yazzie is a community organizer and human rights advocate that has worked on development and energy issues with Indigenous communities across the United States for the past 12 years. Co-founder of Sixth World Solutions LLP., and co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association (LCRWCA), she has built expertise in infrastructure policy, integrated land and water management, and restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) systems. For her international work she is currently the Sustainable Development Program Coordinator for International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and serves as IITC’s representative as co-convenor of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group (IPMG) of the UN High-level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. For her local work she is the manager of Indigenous Infrastructure and Policy for LatinGroup LLC., through which she serves as project manager for the Laguna Broadband Network project led by the Pueblo of Laguna Utility Authority. She also serves as co-chair of the Traditional and Cultural Values Subcommittee of the Navajo Nation Genetics Research Policy working group. She sits on the advisory board of the Oxfam Land Rights Now Campaign and is also a member of the Right Energy Partnership, an international initiative led by the IPMG to apply a Human rights framework in sustainable energy development projects globally.
Past faculty members include:  Jim Enote of Colorado Plateau Foundation, Melissa Nelson of The Cultural Conservancy, and Tarcila Rivera Zea, UN Permanent Forum Member and CHIRAPAQ.
LESSONS IN LISTENING: GUIDANCE FROM INDIGENOUS LEADERS
By Danielle Fuller-Wimbush, Director of Partner Support and Grantmaking, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). Please see the original version of this blog post at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) website.
The recent release of the grave UN assessment detailing the impact of humans on the earth’s ecosystem is another reminder that, unless we change course, humans – along with one million other species – are speeding toward extinction. We need to find better ways of co-existing with nature that are based in regenerative practices, not extraction.
UUSC’s Climate Forced Displacement Initiative centers the voices of First and Indigenous Peoples, in part because they are disproportionately impacted by climate change, but also because we recognize their leadership in how to live in closer harmony with Mother Earth. For too long, those of us from Western countries have been part of a system that perpetuates violence towards people and the environment. It’s time we course correct and listen to the first stewards of the earth.
In this spirit, I recently participated in the International Funders of Indigenous People’s (IFIP’s) Learning Institute. Set in a tranquil retreat center in the forests of New Hampshire, a small group of us who fund or work alongside indigenous communities, met with a distinguished faculty of indigenous leaders from Ecuador, Kenya, and the United States, to listen and learn. Given the trauma of colonization and government and corporate policies and practices that harm indigenous people, we came together because we have a lot to learn to ensure that our relationships are not extractive, that we don’t in any way reinforce systems of oppression, and that we follow UUSC’s model of listening to those most affected and align our work to follow their lead.

IFIP Learning Institute 2019

During our time together, we heard stories of hope and inspiration as the leaders before us displayed their ecological wisdom and profound resilience in the face of significant and ongoing oppression. We heard about the role of indigenous women in caring for the community, including lessons for the feminist movement. This was coupled with accounts of displacement, including those resulting from “false solutions” to the climate crisis, like a wind farm in Kenya that has displaced hundreds of indigenous people, offering a cautionary tale of backing fossil fuel alternatives without consideration of their non-climate impacts. We also heard first-hand accounts of how climate change is altering long-held traditional practices to predict weather and farming practices in Kenya and how environmental racism has left Native Communities in the Southwestern United States with high rates of cancer, birth defects, and the loss of loved ones after exposure to high levels of uranium. The history of violation is long and the pain is real.
This history provided the context for us to then drill down on specific ways to support indigenous leaders in addressing climate change—the need for indigenous people to be at the table when decisions about policy are made and the need to listen to their perspective on legislation and development projects related to renewable energy.
There are very practical steps we can take to make sure this happens, many of which UUSC is already taking with the partner support and small grants that we provide to grassroots organizations—funding indigenous-led organizations, supporting a network of indigenous communities across the globe to amplify their voices, providing general operating support, and offering travel stipends to ensure they have a seat at the table.  But mostly, I think the lesson is to approach the work we do with humility. To ask questions, to listen, and to make sure that in all of our interactions, we first do no harm.
If this is an area that you want to learn more about, I would invite you to read Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva for a thought-provoking book that asks the important question, “What if wealth could be used to heal, restore, and connect?”
ABOUT
The IFIP Learning Institute supports funders to strengthen, develop and adopt funding strategies and practices that values Indigenous Peoples, respects their rights and incorporate their values in what and how donors engage with Indigenous communities.
The aim of the institute is to transform at a systems change level the funding sector to one of understanding and respecting of Indigenous Peoples, which adopts value based partnerships and better resources Indigenous Peoples’ efforts.
In offering this new learning space to the funding community, IFIP is committed to making this a rich learning experience for funders and Indigenous leaders (grantmakers and non-grantmakers), who will be participating as institute faculty. Indigenous Philanthropy questions funders’ assumptions and offers deep reflections that are necessary for a funding community that is committed to social justice and movement building.

IFIP Learning Institute Cohort and Faculty Celebrating

Opening retreat: A 3-day retreat from April 29-May 1, 2019 at Alnoba, Kensington, New Hampshire.
Virtual Meeting: Week of July 8, 2019 (Date TBA)
Closing retreat: September 20, 2019 in San Francisco Bay Area.
Institute community: Continue to learn and engage by joining the institute’s alumni to connect with peers who have embraced Indigenous Philanthropy values.
The Institute’s aim is to:
  • Foster greater understanding of Indigenous Peoples by funders and philanthropy: their cosmovision, values, way of life, and rights as peoples.
  • Support funders to adopt strategies that recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples and implement values-based practices, including a new paradigm of giving based on “The Four R’s of Indigenous Philanthropy” —Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility and Relationships.
  • Promote transformative funding practices that embody Indigenous values and human rights, and come from a position of respect for Indigenous Peoples and appreciation of their knowledge, diversity, leadership, and activism.
The Institute’s further goal is to:
  • Grow the capacity of the funding field to better engage with Indigenous organizations and further resource Indigenous led solutions and efforts to advance their rights.
  • Promote an active and engaged community of funders who is more effectively partnering and collaborating to support the indigenous movement.
Please see Program Design and Registration tabs for additional information on institute logistics.

Claire Poelking, Program Associate, Conservation and Sustainable Development at MacArthur foundation.

TESTIMONIAL FROM 2018 LEARNING INSTITUTE PARTICIPANT
Many philanthropic organizations increasingly understand the value of supporting indigenous efforts in spaces such as biodiversity and cultural conservation, climate change solutions and climate justice, sustainable development, and human rights. This is exciting and so important, but funding indigenous peoples, communities, and organizations comes with a unique set of challenges. All funders know the necessity of legal due diligence – but what of due diligence from a cultural or community perspective. All grantmakers are able to read proposals – but what of opportunities missed because organizations cannot write in the required language or access a steady enough internet connection to ever submit the proposal. The Learning Institute is an incredible opportunity to engage with indigenous leaders and peers on topics like placing charitable funding in historical context, the mechanics of grantmaking to indigenous groups, and the current potential of philanthropy to effectively and responsibly support indigenous people and their territories.
The Learning Institute, like IFIP, is purposeful in its mission and implementation but leaves space for unanticipated ideas, conversations, and interests. Moreover, it is welcoming and unpresumptuous about participants knowledge and experience working with indigenous peoples, which makes for a safe, non-judgmental learning environment. The relatively small group size means that everyone is able to contribute – at whatever level they are most comfortable. Rachel Humphrey is a terrific and skilled facilitator that seamlessly leads the group through various sessions from an introduction of indigenous rights and movements to an activity on the historical role of philanthropy and into a discussion of how, collectively, grantmakers can create a new paradigm to encourage reciprocal relationships between funders and indigenous groups.
There is a schedule, but not an agenda. We are asked to sit with difficult material, reflect on our opinions, and draw our own conclusions but with the invaluable input of indigenous leaders who willingly share their lived experiences. The Learning Institute will assuredly prove that reciprocal, honest relationships can — and more pressingly, should — exist between grantors and indigenous peoples.
My hope is to assuage any doubts that this is somehow a scripted, PowerPoint-driven lecture that either neglects or demands participation. Truthfully, the Learning Institute is what you make it – and it has tremendous potential to be a thought-provoking, authentic, and enriching three days that will (hopefully!) influence your grantmaking, build a strong cohort of like-minded colleagues, and challenge you on a number of professional and personal levels.
PROGRAM DESIGN
Who is the Institute for?
The Learning Institute is designed for funders interested on growing and deepening their understanding of how to effectively partner and support Indigenous Peoples directly and indirectly.
We invite foundation leadership and staff who are guiding, influencing, and responsible for giving programs. We encourage and welcome the participation of individual donors, social impact investors, and philanthropy advisors.
What to expect?
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.
Participants will be immersed in an indigenous learning atmosphere were deep listening, storytelling, and reflection are part of the methodology of the program.
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, workshop, and closing meeting. The program is designed around four modules as follows:
April Opening Retreat:
Grounding – Indigenous worldviews, movement, context and importance of now, what is at stake locally and globally?
Exploring and learning – Understanding how weaving Indigenous values strengthens transformation and the importance of partnering with Indigenous organizations and communities.
In Practice – Focusing on two or three different thematic issues to map out what strategy and practice look like when working on these issues.
September Closing Retreat:
Reflections on learning – an opportunity to re-engage, share transformations, plan your actions and design way forward.
The IFIP Learning Institute Facilitator
The IFIP Learning Institute will be facilitated in partnership with Justice Funders. IFIP has partnered with Justice Funders to bring some of the Harmony Initiative content and approach to the Learning Institute. Focused on supporting funders in their learning, action, and transformation, Justice Funders specializes in “going deep” to help philanthropic institutions take their values into specific, tangible action that supports equity and justice.
The facilitator will be Rachel Humphrey, Senior Program Director at Justice Funders. Rachel leads Justice Funders’ leadership development, coaching and consulting work, including the Harmony Initiative.
ESTEEMED FACULTY
A core component of the Learning Institute is all Indigenous Faculty.  IFIP stands by our belief that to transform philanthropy, Indigenous Peoples must be the ones telling their stories, ideas, and vision for real transformation in the funding community. IFIP’s Indigenous faculty are local to global leaders with long activism, experience, and knowledge who are committed to supporting a new paradigm of giving, partnerships, and investing between indigenous peoples and the funding community
IFIP’s Learning Institute is a program that educates and builds the capacity of funders to become better funders and allies to Indigenous Peoples and in doing so propel a new paradigm of giving, one that respect and values Indigenous Peoples’ rights. In creating a learning experience for the funding community led by an all-Indigenous faculty, IFIP is living its values of “The Four R’s of Indigenous Philanthropy”- Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Relationships.
2019 Faculty Members:

Hussein Isack, the founding Executive Director of Kivulini Trust is a Behavioral Ecologist who hails from the Gabbra pastoralist community of northern Kenya. He has vast experience with the Issues of the region, with special interest in the promotion of indigenous knowledge and conservation in the areas of bio-cultural heritage. He has a long experience in field research on indigenous ecological knowledge, heritage management and offers practical support to small communities of Kenya in their endeavor to
maintain their living traditions and environmental relationships.
Hussein has served as the head of departments of Ornithology and of cultural heritage (respectively) at the National Museums of Kenya; lecturer, Department of Wildlife Management, Moi University, Eldoret and worked as an in-region Consultant, assisting the Christensen Fund developing programs with minority peoples in the Ethiopia-Kenyan borderlands. He is a member
of the Guiding Committee of the Pawanka Fund.
He holds a BA (Zoology), MA and PhD from the University of Oxford, UK; is an authority on the
study of the symbiotic relationship between the Greater Honey Guide (a bird) and honey hunters (human) and is a village elder in Gotu, Isiolo County where he lives.
Dr. Yolanda Teran Maigua is from the Kichwa nation from Ecuador. She is the Education Coordinator of the Indigenous Women Network on Biodiversity from Latin America and the Caribbean, RMIB-LAC. Currently she is a Research Faculty in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico, UNM. She has researched on Indigenous education, languages, Indigenous research and protocols in Latin America. Her current research focuses on culturally appropriate curriculum, Indigenous Peoples, biodiversity, traditional knowledge, business, repatriation and policy. She has been working in the creation of a strong relationship between the academia and Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, in collaboration with some UNM departments, RMIB-LAC and Indigenous organizations from New Mexico, she coordinated the elaboration of three Indigenous Peoples’ position papers that were submitted to CBD Secretariat in 2010. She was the Regional Coordinator for the Latin American Workshop on Indicators and is a member of the CBD Informal Committees for CEPA and for the implementation of Nagoya Protocol.
In the year 2016 Dr. Teran’s unique work in human rights of Indigenous Peoples from the globe was recognized by the New Mexico Legislature in Santa Fe City, in the United States.
In September 2018 she received the prize “El Procerato del Trabajo” from the Major of San Gabriel City, Ecuador as a pioneer recognition of her national and international advocacy for the Indigenous Peoples human rights and the Mother Earth rights.
Her recent publications include the “Cultural Foundations for Developing a Kichwa Language Program” written in English, Spanish and Kichwa and the book on “El Protocolo de Nagoya y Pueblos Indígenas” which is in Spanish, written as a legacy for Indigenous youth from Latin America and was delivered at COP 14 in Egypt.
Janene Yazzie is a community organizer and human rights advocate that has worked on development and energy issues with Indigenous communities across the United States for the past 12 years. Co-founder of Sixth World Solutions LLP., and co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association (LCRWCA), she has built expertise in infrastructure policy, integrated land and water management, and restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) systems. For her international work she is currently the Sustainable Development Program Coordinator for International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and serves as IITC’s representative as co-convenor of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group (IPMG) of the UN High-level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. For her local work she is the manager of Indigenous Infrastructure and Policy for LatinGroup LLC., through which she serves as project manager for the Laguna Broadband Network project led by the Pueblo of Laguna Utility Authority. She also serves as co-chair of the Traditional and Cultural Values Subcommittee of the Navajo Nation Genetics Research Policy working group. She sits on the advisory board of the Oxfam Land Rights Now Campaign and is also a member of the Right Energy Partnership, an international initiative led by the IPMG to apply a Human rights framework in sustainable energy development projects globally.
Past faculty members include:  Jim Enote of Colorado Plateau Foundation, Melissa Nelson of The Cultural Conservancy, and Tarcila Rivera Zea, UN Permanent Forum Member and CHIRAPAQ.
REFLECTIONS
LESSONS IN LISTENING: GUIDANCE FROM INDIGENOUS LEADERS
By Danielle Fuller-Wimbush, Director of Partner Support and Grantmaking, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). Please see the original version of this blog post at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) website.
The recent release of the grave UN assessment detailing the impact of humans on the earth’s ecosystem is another reminder that, unless we change course, humans – along with one million other species – are speeding toward extinction. We need to find better ways of co-existing with nature that are based in regenerative practices, not extraction.
UUSC’s Climate Forced Displacement Initiative centers the voices of First and Indigenous Peoples, in part because they are disproportionately impacted by climate change, but also because we recognize their leadership in how to live in closer harmony with Mother Earth. For too long, those of us from Western countries have been part of a system that perpetuates violence towards people and the environment. It’s time we course correct and listen to the first stewards of the earth.
In this spirit, I recently participated in the International Funders of Indigenous People’s (IFIP’s) Learning Institute. Set in a tranquil retreat center in the forests of New Hampshire, a small group of us who fund or work alongside indigenous communities, met with a distinguished faculty of indigenous leaders from Ecuador, Kenya, and the United States, to listen and learn. Given the trauma of colonization and government and corporate policies and practices that harm indigenous people, we came together because we have a lot to learn to ensure that our relationships are not extractive, that we don’t in any way reinforce systems of oppression, and that we follow UUSC’s model of listening to those most affected and align our work to follow their lead.

IFIP Learning Institute 2019

During our time together, we heard stories of hope and inspiration as the leaders before us displayed their ecological wisdom and profound resilience in the face of significant and ongoing oppression. We heard about the role of indigenous women in caring for the community, including lessons for the feminist movement. This was coupled with accounts of displacement, including those resulting from “false solutions” to the climate crisis, like a wind farm in Kenya that has displaced hundreds of indigenous people, offering a cautionary tale of backing fossil fuel alternatives without consideration of their non-climate impacts. We also heard first-hand accounts of how climate change is altering long-held traditional practices to predict weather and farming practices in Kenya and how environmental racism has left Native Communities in the Southwestern United States with high rates of cancer, birth defects, and the loss of loved ones after exposure to high levels of uranium. The history of violation is long and the pain is real.
This history provided the context for us to then drill down on specific ways to support indigenous leaders in addressing climate change—the need for indigenous people to be at the table when decisions about policy are made and the need to listen to their perspective on legislation and development projects related to renewable energy.
There are very practical steps we can take to make sure this happens, many of which UUSC is already taking with the partner support and small grants that we provide to grassroots organizations—funding indigenous-led organizations, supporting a network of indigenous communities across the globe to amplify their voices, providing general operating support, and offering travel stipends to ensure they have a seat at the table.  But mostly, I think the lesson is to approach the work we do with humility. To ask questions, to listen, and to make sure that in all of our interactions, we first do no harm.
If this is an area that you want to learn more about, I would invite you to read Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva for a thought-provoking book that asks the important question, “What if wealth could be used to heal, restore, and connect?”
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