Looking Back on Four Years of the Flicker Fund
In our recent Four-Year Reflection Report, SGF looked back on the work we’ve done and the impact we’ve had within the Indigenous community in the years since the COVID-19 crisis took hold. As others pulled back, we did our best to reach out. Our grantmaking grew, our Fellowships expanded, our Affiliates thrived, and when it was safe to gather together again, we did. Below is an excerpt regarding our Flicker Fund.
In 2020, no single family or community was untouched by COVID-19. Due to the lingering effects of colonization and structural inequities in health care systems, Indigenous communities around the world especially felt the pandemic’s impacts. Our Indigenous communities endured the devastating loss of Elders, wisdom keepers, fluent language speakers, and even young people — our future leaders. In the U.S. alone, 1 in 390 Indigenous Americans died (or 256.0 deaths per 100,000) and 1 in 565 Pacific Islander Americans died (or 176.6 deaths per 100,000) due to COVID-19.
We knew our communities needed greater support than ever, and we resolved to provide it. On March 13, 2020, within days of learning about the danger and pervasiveness of the virus, we launched the Flicker Fund. Embodying the fast flight and power of a flicker — a good medicine bird — our Flicker Fund was created as a way to rapidly respond to stressed Indigenous communities on the front lines of intersecting crises, from pandemics to climate-induced disasters like fires, floods, and droughts.
“We are eternally grateful to Seventh Generation Fund staff, directors, and board members for helping the Original Peoples of Cuscatan/Chapanastique (El Salvador). We are establishing Cuscatan/Chapanatique nations’ self-determination and sovereignty. Our peoples are able to reconnect with Mother Earth by planting our own food, making us more self-sufficient and bringing us closer to our ancestral methods.”
— Haydee Sanchez, founder, El Centro Cultural Techantit, Flicker Fund Grantee
Through the Flicker Fund, we were able to quickly and effectively direct resources to crisis-impacted communities. In the first three months of the pandemic, we distributed $260,000 to 25 communities severely impacted by COVID-19. By Dec. 15, 2020, we had disbursed 463 grants for a total of $1,427,000.
SGF’s support fulfilled a wide range of needs, as defined by the communities themselves. This included community leaders providing traditional medicines focusing on immunity support for elder wisdom keepers, basic grocery and hygiene deliveries for hundreds of multigenerational households, revitalizing seed exchanges, and planting family gardens to strengthen nutrition.
Crises continue to affect Native communities. The recent Maui fires are another tragic example of the strain natural disasters can place on under-resourced communities. In the weeks after the fires struck, we directed $215,000 to groups on the front lines engaged in food distribution, as direct support to pregnant and nursing families, to support critical communication infrastructure for impacted Peoples, and to provide midwife services.
If you’re interested in learning more about our work over the last four years, you can read the full Four-Year Reflection Report which goes into greater detail on the work we’ve been able to achieve.
