Contribution: 2019-2024
$1,530,000
Funding strategy
Innovative platforms for change
Turtle Island Institute (TII) is a global Indigenous think and do tank and a teaching lodge committed to amplifying Indigenous knowledge systems, ancient wisdom traditions and Indigenous sciences.
"We breathe Spirit into systems spaces that have become disconnected from the Spirit of Life. We do this by reorienting systems processes to include critical dimensions reflective of Ancestral ways of seeing, knowing, relating and doing," says Terrellyn Fearn, Project Director.
TII hosts a virtual teaching lodge with more than 600 global family members. The virtual lodge is a living communal network of diverse systems change leaders, knowledge carriers, practitioners, ancient language speakers, community scholars, scientists, artists, Faithkeepers, healers and musicians focused on amplifying individual and collective capacities to effect large-scale transformative change.
“We approach our work grounded in principles of relationality and care,” says Fearn. “As quantum scientist and seed keeper Dr. Vandana Shiva shared in one of our dialogues, ‘Care is the only living relationship that sustains life.’ I couldn’t agree more.”
According to Fearn, “care is the mashkiki (medicine) we are taking into this new lunar cycle for 2023, as we honour the complexity of living experiences and differing worldviews and aim to uphold the dignity of all living things, seen and unseen.”
These values will be foundational to TII as it continues to design innovative projects and uniquely Indigenous approaches to bring deep systems awareness.
Thank you to Turtle Island Institute for the images used on this page and other pages throughout this report.