The Act of Return: Why Supporting the Wolankeyutomon Kisi Apaciyewik Fund Is Vital to Land Conservation

In November, several of my philanthropy colleagues and I completed a 13-month journey toward better understanding Wabanaki experiences, cultures, and histories. Known as Confluence, this third iteration of the First Light Learning Journey was designed to help non-native conservation organizations reconsider their land conservation efforts in the context of Indigenous history.

The course helped my colleagues and me see our grantmaking in a new light. It was a reminder that, as much as the Onion Foundation strives to build a more equitable and healthy Maine, we remain guests on this land. Unless we take action, our equity and inclusion goals simply fall flat, and we remain complicit in the continued relegation of Indigenous people.

In 2022, we created our Statement of Intention to name our specific goals and commitments to the Wabanaki communities, the original and continued stewards of these lands. More recently, we awarded grant funding to the Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik Fund, and we’re actively encouraging our land-based grantee organizations to do the same. While some nonprofits might be hesitant to put grant dollars toward the fund, we want to affirm that such contributions are consistent with — even vital to — conservation missions.

Repair and Return

Managed by the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship, the Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik Fund is intended to support Wabanaki land relationships. Its grants go directly to Wabanaki tribal governments, Wabanaki-led nonprofits, and Wabanaki culture keepers who are working to fulfill Indigenous caretaking responsibilities for the lands and waters of Maine.

The Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik Fund is entirely Wabanaki-led. The purposes of the fund were determined by an extensive community engagement process, and Wabanaki people make all grant decisions. A contribution to the fund recognizes Wabanaki sovereignty by returning to the Wabanaki Nations decision-making authority over financial resources.

The fund’s mission, therefore, resonates deeply with that of the Onion Foundation’s Environment Program: to support work that builds meaningful, equitable connections between people and the outdoors. For Wabanaki communities that consider the lands, waters, and the creatures within them as kin, those relationships are central to their culture. They’ve motivated the Wabanaki’s deep sense of responsibility to steward these lands and waters for 10,000 years before the arrival of European settlers and still to this day.

The Importance of Taking Good Care

Compared to typical land trust duties, Indigenous stewardship involves a more reciprocal exchange of care and nourishment that supports the health of the land while supporting the health of the community. It creates a virtuous circle in which the land and the people nurture and are nurtured in return.

As a foundation, we have considerable means and responsibility to uplift this exchange of care, and we can do so by supporting nonprofits that allow access for hunting and harvesting, traditional forest management, the transmission of cultural practices, artistic expression, and ceremony. We believe our grantees share that responsibility, and we, therefore, also support conservation organizations that financially contribute to the Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik Fund.

Some Maine-based organizations are well on their way toward returning land to Wabanaki communities. The Tributary Land Returns project, for example, will soon add more than 50,000 acres of wetlands, woodlands, islands, and waterfront to the lands that have already been returned to Wabanaki communities. This is a tremendous act of repair for non-native people’s relationships to Wabanaki communities and for Wabanaki relationships to the land.

As significant as it is to transfer ownership of the land, that’s just the first step. The Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik Fund resources the many stewardship activities that restore Wabanaki kin relationships to the land that were interrupted by land theft and generations of exclusion. In English, the Passamaquoddy phrase “Wolankeyutomone kisi apaciyewik” means “Let us take good care of what is returned.” The grants from this fund enable land caretaking and relationship rebuilding in all its forms.

The Nonprofit’s Role in the Act of Return

A nonprofit board is the fiduciary of the nonprofit, and board members are rightly careful to ensure that financial resources are spent wisely in service of the organization’s mission and to avoid mission creep.

We believe wholeheartedly that the work of the Wolankeyutomon Kisi Apaciyewik Fund is a legitimate part of any conservation mission in Maine. Seeing the many land trusts and other nonprofits that have made contributions to the fund — with some even including contributions into their operating budgets — we’re heartened to know that many nonprofits agree. The Onion Foundation encourages our conservation grantees to put a portion of our general operating support grants towards this vital cause. Other foundations, including Momentum Conservation and the Sewall Foundation, agree with our stance.

The First Light Learning Journey inspired us to look both outward at the systems that uphold injustice and inward at our own actions to dismantle those systems. As we move forward, we’re committed to putting our resources, time, and energy toward this mission — and we hope conservation organizations will as well.