Fresno State Library receives grant Award From California Humanities

California Humanities announced the recent round of Humanities For All Quick Grant awards, including a $5,000 award to the Fresno State Library for its project entitled “Indigenous Wisdom: Celebrating Our Central Valley Indigenous Elders.”

The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally initiated public humanities projects that respond to the needs and interests of Californians; encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences; and promotes understanding and empathy among all of California’s peoples in order to cultivate a thriving democracy.

The grant will support a community dinner honoring local Indigenous elders followed by a public, short film screening of documentaries showcasing their life’s work in environmental stewardship and Native language preservation. 

The project originated with local community organizer Roman Rain Tree and the desire to strengthen connections between Native youth and elders. Seeking partnership with the library, Neum Native American Student Association and Native American campus and local community, Rain Tree said, “We are thrilled at the possibility to reimagine our community and the university through a lens rooted in tribal cultural understanding of the importance of healing in cultivating and nurturing relationships, while simultaneously amplifying both the local and intertribal voices.”

The project director and Fresno State librarian Ginny Barnes said, “With this effort, I am eager to move beyond symbolic gestures and deepen our library’s allyship for Indigenous justice. Working with the Native community at Fresno State and in the local area to plan these programs, I look forward to the conversations that will spark and keep Indigenous knowledge and traditions alive.” 

“California Humanities is excited to welcome our newest round of Quick Grant awards,” said Rick Noguchi, the organization’s new president and CEO. “In addition to using a variety of mediums to creatively engage new and long-standing audiences, these projects are also providing a unique humanities lens for discussing California histories and cultures and important community issues.”

A complete list of all Humanities For All Quick Grants can be found at calhum.org.

California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment of the Humanities, promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more visit calhum.org, or follow California Humanities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.