Power of Ceremony & Healing Grant

Power of Ceremony & Healing Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Na’ah Illahee Fund
Amount: Up to US $5,000
Last Updated: June 27, 2025

Summary

The Power of Ceremony & Healing Grant, initiated by Na’ah Illahee Fund and The Potlatch Fund, aims to support Indigenous culture keepers and healers in the Pacific Northwest. This grant focuses on preserving and revitalizing Native ceremonies, which are crucial for spiritual and community healing. By funding individuals leading these ceremonies, the grant fosters cultural resilience, encourages self-determination, and nurtures connections to traditional practices, ultimately contributing to the well-being of Indigenous communities.

Overview

Na’ah Illahee Fund Na’ah Illahee Fund is an Indigenous women-led organization dedicated to the ongoing regeneration of Indigenous communities. Through grantmaking, capacity-building and community-based intergenerational programming, we seek transformative change by supporting culturally grounded leadership and organizing. Focused on Indigenous Ecology, Food Sovereignty, and Wise Action, we work to advance climate and gender justice, while creating healthy pathways towards self-determination and movement-building. Mission Our Mission is to support and promote the leadership of Indigenous women in the ongoing regeneration of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Vision Our Vision is a prosperous Pacific Northwest region with vibrant Indigenous communities that have found their way back to healthy and thriving cultures, lands, and regenerative economies. Power of Ceremony & Healing Grant Na’ah Illahee Fund and The Potlatch Fund have partnered in a collective giving campaign to bring forward the Power of Ceremony & Healing Grant to help bring unity to our people by providing support to those that lift up our people culturally and spiritually. The cultural practice of ceremony is essential to Native health for healing our people spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically, and mentally. It plays a critical role in Native people’s lives by connecting us to our traditions, languages, songs, beliefs, ancestors, and ways of healing. Since the Na’ah Illahee Fund (NIF) & Potlatch Fund support the development of a strong, positive Indigenous identity, this grant will support work led by culture keepers and healers to help make our people whole again. NIF & Potlatch Fund will support Native healing by providing support to those individuals who are leading ceremonies, whether they are Smokehouse Lead Workers/Caretakers, Longhouse Lead Speakers/Caretakers, Bundle Keepers, Song Carriers, Sundance Leaders, Sacred Tobacco Ceremony Leaders and those who make ceremonial gear: traditional makers of cedar hats, drums, rattles, regalia, caskets and other traditional items for ceremony purposes (those who sell nothing commercially). In Our Way of Life teachings (based on the Medicine Wheel), passing is part of our way of life and is as valid as anything we do when we are alive. As Native people, we know we need to heal ourselves before we can help others. Ceremony provides a place to heal through prayer, to use our indigenous language, connect to the land, revive our culture, and support one another. Now is the time to resurrect our traditions and keep them alive before our elders cross over and take their knowledge with them. Through offering this grant, we plan to support the power of our culture keepers and healers leading Native Ceremony and the medicine they bring to heal our communities.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Who Should Apply:Applicants must be located in the greater Northwest region: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and British Columbia are eligible for funding under this program.Indigenous Individuals, Alaska Natives or First Nation Individuals with Tribal Affiliation.For NIF, Indigenous includes anyone who holds tribal affiliation/identifies with Indigenous nations in North, Central, or South America or identifies as Native Hawaiian.What We Seek to Support:We seek to fund Indigenous and First Nations individuals who dedicate their time leading ceremonies in Indigenous communities. Applicants will need to name the house they serve on the application and apply for the one central place where they provide teachings.We encourage the following to apply:Smokehouse Lead Workers/CaretakersLonghouse Lead Speakers/Caretakers Bundle KeepersSong CarriersSundance LeadersSacred Tobacco Ceremony Leaders; andCeremonial Gift Makers: Traditional makers of cedar hats, drums, rattles, regalia, beadwork, caskets, and other traditional items for ceremony purposes. We intend these funds to be spent on what you need to run the ceremony you lead in your community.  We trust our people who are awarded will use the funds in the way they know best to support their community.Funding aims to support populations with little or no access to financial resources in hard-to-reach places.

Ineligibility

Our Power of Ceremony grant does not provide grants to:Groups that practice or promote racism, sexism, homophobia, or any form of oppression or exploitation of other humans or the natural worldPromote or support violence, aggression, or oppression or any infringement on other peopleAre not making an effort to be environmentally responsibleAre connected to political parties, political rallies or otherwise partisan in their workGrantees receiving funds for NIF’s Green Infrastructure Capacity Building grants this year are not eligible to apply.