Dear Friends,
Over the past year, we have been in a place of learning and expansion within our Constellations community. Through a broader lens, we can also attest to the horror and heartbreak of entering a new year on the heels of global climate chaos and the genocide of people of the global majority across the world. As BIPOC cultural strategists and resource stewards who are contributing to the longevity of social movements and narrative power-building, we are grateful to have been called into a period of deep listening, reflection, realignment, and growth. Through our successes and mistakes, we are deepening and evolving our understanding of cultural power, narrative infrastructure building, and frameworks for community care.
We want to share our heartfelt gratitude with all of you: who have journeyed with us through our last year of developing and implementing our philanthropic strategies and programs. We want to appreciate our network partners for inspiring us and showing us the transformative power of work rooted in culture and community, and how those efforts are contributing to shifting worldviews and systems.
We also want to appreciate our community of funder partners for learning alongside us and continuing to fund this important work despite the growing trend in philanthropy of scaling back commitments to racial justice. It has been beautiful to see the courage and creativity of our network partners, in the face of the pushback and backlash against the assertion of our shared humanity. Thank you for acknowledging the growing power of BIPOC stories and cultural strategies that move us all away from domination, towards care and liberation.
In this spirit of appreciation, we want to honor some of the incredible work that spread its wings within the Constellations network in the last year.
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MĀLAMA MAUI
PROVIDING SUPPORT TO LAHAINA THROUGH CONSTELLATIONS MUTUAL AID FUND
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For the last six months, we’ve held Maui in our hearts. Here on Turtle Island, unseasonal and climate change-induced wildfires surround many of our homelands but these homelands are still here. We do not know the grief thousands have come to know in Maui: a life consumed by flame, reborn as ash. What we do understand is that the islands and their inhabitants are grounded in the way only people of the earth and sea can be: intrinsic to both the land and its culture, as well as to the future of its healing.
Colonial capitalism and corporate devastation may be raging across all our unceded lands, but as expressed through many acts of urgent community response, we know our extended kin have been rising like a wave together. From organizing on-the-ground, Kānaka-led mutual aid efforts to coordinating petitions to stop Lahaina land grabs, and keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands, the community has made it known that they will not be moved from their homelands.
Each Kānaka we’ve ever met has filled our hearts with medicine and the mana of the many who came before them. Such is the case with Constellations Fellow, Keala Kahuanui, an educator and Hawaiian voyager. Keala and her partner organization Nā Kālai Waʻa, mobilized quickly to provide rapid response mutual aid and support those impacted by the fires in the form of not only food and needed resources but also traditional food preservation knowledge and traditional-based foods that could last in the wake of losing access to their grocery supply chain and the electrical grid that sustained their appliances.
As our systems go into crisis and collapse, it becomes even more important to reconnect to and revive indigenous and ancestral traditions that allow our communities to grow and thrive. We have deep gratitude for how our network of partners has responded to these crises.
It was our honor to listen to our partners on the ground from Maui and Guam and provide support with their guidance on where to distribute Constellations’ mutual aid funds in the wake of wildfires and a devastating typhoon. The potential in this approach is showing what change is possible, when modest financial resources are directly in the hands of leaders who are most impacted and when those resources flow through the webs of deep relationships within communities.
As our core narrative states, #WeThriveWhenWeCareForEachOther
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CONSTELLATIONS 2023 AWARDEES ANNOUNCEMENT
REMEMBERING, REIMAGINING, AND RECONNECTING TO OUR DEEPEST ROOTS
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There is no greater gift than knowing who you are. One cohort of recent Constellations awardees - the Language Awardees - is doing the work of reclaiming and revitalizing ancestral language deeply rooted in the wisdom and relationship of people to their places. Language is a pillar and carrier of culture. And yet, according to The Language Conservancy, “Nine languages cease to be spoken every year, or one in every forty days.” Language and cultural knowledge preservation is more critical than ever before, especially as we’ve witnessed and felt the immense loss of language keepers and knowledge holders due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing attacks on global majority communities.
Investment in those who lift their voices to help others learn to speak in the language of their ancestors is a foundational strategy essential to the broad cultural shift underway.
These awardees are among the thirty (30) amazing Artist Disruptors and traditional and tradition-based Culture Bearers we have been honored to bring into the Constellations Network. Each was celebrated through our four participatory awards including Artist Disruptor, Intergenerational Knowledge Transmission, Language, and Cultural Practice and Knowledge. They have been integral to the growth of our initiative and knowledgeable mentors, teaching us about reclaiming our power through community collaboration, liberation strategizing, and traditional practice.
As our core narrative states, #WeStewardThePastAndTheFuture
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Artist Disruptor Awardees |
| Cultural Knowledge and Practice Awardees |
| Intergenerational Knowledge Transmission Awardees |
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2023 GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT (GOS) GRANTEE PARTNER ANNOUNCEMENT
WE LEARN WITH AND GROW THROUGH THE POWER OF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
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This year, we’re energized by and excited to learn from the following 2023 GOS grantee partner organizations in key regions and communities who advance liberatory narratives through a myriad of artistic disciplines and cultural practices that build collaborative community power!
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Please join us in celebrating the following grantee partners joining our Constellations Network:
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We thank the many Constellations Network Partners for their participation and contribution to this work, from nominating and endorsing these new partners, supporting the design of the process, and collectively deciding on where the resources should go.
We look forward to connecting with you more regularly in our quarterly newsletters! Please invite your community and partners to sign up for newsletters here so that we can grow not only our collective abundance but also share skills to build a stronger network.
With love and abundance, in connection and community,
The Constellations Staff
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dawa'eh • iheedn • tlazokamatli • kalahngan lap • migai ma’åse • mahalo piha iā ʻoukou āpau • shukreeya • arigatou • mashayon • mazvita • shukran • quyana • ippe nifee debiru • lila wopila tanka • pilamayaye • quyanaqpakgivsi • gracias • mèsi anpil • nya weh • hahom • kamsahamnida • mazvita • ua tsaug • with gratitude
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