The Colibri
Dream Weavers Foundation
Where Creativity Meets Healing
Mission Statement
The Colibri Weavers Foundation exists to honor, empower, and amplify the voices of Indigenous
creatives of the Americas. Through art, film, storytelling, and cultural expression, we encourage the weaving of Indigenous wisdom
into the fabric of modern consciousness. By funding visionary artists and their projects, we ensure Indigenous
cultures are celebrated, recognized, and preserved, while inspiring a more conscious and connected world.
Vision
We envision a global renaissance of Indigenous creativity — where ancestral wisdom and
modern artistic visions meet, shaping the mainstream with beauty, authenticity, and truth. Our economic vehicles
become a river of support, empowering Indigenous voices to shine and weaving their stories
into humanity’s shared tapestry.
Core Commitments
1. Lifelong Devotion to Creative Practice
Colibri Weavers supports Indigenous artists who have demonstrated long-term, mature commitment to their creative practice. Priority is given to individuals who have dedicated decades of their lives to artistic expression, regardless of commercial success, institutional recognition, or market visibility.
We recognize that Indigenous creatives often work outside formal art systems, carrying cultural, familial, and ceremonial responsibilities alongside their art. Depth of devotion—not public profile—is the primary measure of eligibility.
2. Mature Practice & Demonstrated Continuity
Applicants must demonstrate sustained engagement in a mature phase of creative development, reflected through:
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Intellectual, technical, and creative refinement over time
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Consistency of practice across many years
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A clear relationship between the artist’s work and cultural, ancestral, or lived experience
Maturity is not defined by Western timelines alone, but by continuity, coherence, and the integrity of the artist’s path.
3. Financial Need as a Criterion of Support
Eligibility for Colibri Weavers grants is determined in part by current financial need. Many Indigenous artists sustain profound creative and cultural contributions while remaining economically unsupported due to systemic exclusion.
Financial review exists not as judgment, but as a means of directing resources where they will most effectively:
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Relieve immediate economic strain
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Protect the continuity of creative practice
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Restore time, focus, and dignity to the artist’s work
All financial disclosures are handled with respect, confidentiality, and cultural awareness.
4. Support for the Artist — Not Projects
Colibri Weavers funds individual artists, not organizations, institutions, students, or project-based proposals. Grants are awarded to support the artist directly, without requiring specific deliverables, exhibitions, or productions.
We trust that when the artist is supported, the work that needs to emerge will do so in its own time and form.
5. Disciplines & Forms of Expression
Colibri Weavers supports Indigenous creatives working across a wide spectrum of artistic expression, including traditional, contemporary, and hybrid forms. This may include visual art, film, storytelling, performance, installation, land-based work, and other culturally rooted expressions.
What matters is not medium, but maturity of voice, continuity of practice, and cultural integrity.
6. Limited Awards, Meaningful Impact
A finite number of grants are awarded each year in order to ensure that each recipient receives substantial, meaningful support. Grant amounts are designed to make a real difference in the artist’s life and creative sustainability, rather than symbolic recognition.
7. Independent Review & Integrity
Applications are reviewed by a small, independent panel of experienced arts and culture professionals with no financial or personal affiliation to the Foundation or applicants. This ensures fairness, discernment, and ethical stewardship of resources.
8. Circulation of Abundance & Long-Term Stewardship
Colibri Weavers invests in the circulation of abundance by:
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Supporting individual artists directly
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Building a world-class art collection that uplifts Indigenous and global creatives
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Establishing a future museum and cultural center
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Creating an endowment that sustains operations and funding for generations
All activities are guided by principles of reciprocity, consent, and long-term cultural stewardship.
Foundational Ethics
The Colibri Weavers Foundation operates from the understanding that culture is alive, not a resource to be extracted, branded, or owned. Indigenous creativity is not content—it is lineage, responsibility, and relationship.
We exist to support without controlling, to fund without directing, and to amplify without appropriating.
Our ethics are guided by the following commitments:
Sovereignty Before Support
Indigenous artists retain full creative, cultural, and intellectual sovereignty over their work. Funding from Colibri Weavers never requires the surrender of authorship, meaning, or direction. The Foundation does not shape narrative, impose interpretation, or claim ownership—explicitly or implicitly.
Reciprocity, Not Extraction
We do not harvest culture for prestige, capital, or institutional legitimacy. Every exchange is rooted in reciprocity, transparency, and consent. When value circulates through Colibri Weavers, it returns to the people and cultures from which it originates.
Non-Interference with the Creative Process
The Foundation does not fund outcomes, trends, or deliverables. We fund people. Artists are trusted to determine how support is used in service of their practice, their community, and their timing. Creativity unfolds on its own terms.
Dignity in Financial Stewardship
Financial need is evaluated with respect and discretion. We reject scarcity-based judgment, surveillance, or moralizing of economic circumstance. Resources are allocated to restore stability, continuity, and creative capacity—not to enforce compliance.
Cultural Accountability
We acknowledge that Indigenous art carries responsibility beyond the individual. When work intersects with lineage, land, or ceremony, we defer to cultural protocols and community accountability rather than institutional authority.
Selective Presence
Colibri Weavers practices restraint. We do not seek ubiquity, rapid expansion, or visibility for its own sake. Impact is measured by depth, integrity, and continuity—not scale.
Stewardship Across Generations
All collections, partnerships, and institutions formed under Colibri Weavers are guided by long-term stewardship. Decisions are made with future generations in mind, ensuring that what is supported today remains protected tomorrow.
Colibri Weavers exists to protect the conditions under which Indigenous creativity can remain free, alive, and undistorted.
We do not stand above culture.
We do not stand outside it.
We stand in service—quietly, deliberately, and with responsibility.