We Started Paying Shuumi in 2021. Now What?
Our journey to deepen solidarity with Indigenous land rematriation movements led us to grow our land tax contributions in alignment with our growing operating budget.
In 2021, our co-conspirator Kathryn Gilje, formerly of Ceres Trust, wrote It’s Tax Season! Philanthropy, let’s Pay Shuumi. She asked philanthropy to reflect on these questions:
- How effectively do we serve the public good? And how can we creatively expand on the ways we serve the public good?
- On whose ancestral, “public” land do we live and work?
- Always, and especially now, in this clear moment of public reckoning for racial justice and a right relationship with the land, are we redistributing wealth to the communities from whom wealth, culture, and land are violently extracted?
- And who will we be, together, in the struggle for public and collective healing, well-being, and justice? Especially given our perch, and particular seat at the table?
- For those of us in the Bay Area, could we, will we give Shuumi?
The Justice Funders (JF) office, along with our team and our programmatic activities, were originally located on the unceded lands of the Lisjan Ohlone people. As an organization working to transform the philanthropic sector, we enthusiastically responded to Kat’s call. In 2021, we started paying our institutional Shuumi Land Tax, a voluntary annual contribution that non-Indigenous people living on the Confederated Villages of Lisjan’s territory can make to support the critical work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. We also launched the Funder Circle for Shuumi and Action to partner with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust in organizing more philanthropic organizations to pay Shuumi.
So much has changed since 2021. As an organization, JF’s staff and programming have grown severalfold.
Since we started paying our annual Shuumi Land Tax, we continued to ask ourselves: How do we deepen our solidarity with Indigenous land rematriation movements?
Growing Our Organization Means Growing Our Commitment
Even prior to 2021, JF had begun to grow our team and programming nationally. We no longer have a physical office in the Bay Area, and instead have staff working together virtually across Turtle Island.
We grew from a staff of 13 in 2021 to now having a staff of 17 residing on the lands of the Lisjan Ohlone, Tamien Ohlone, Amah Mutsin, Ramaytush Ohlone, Tongva, Tiwa and Tewa, Paiute, Shoshone, Washoe, Jumanos, Coahuiltecan, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, Shawnee, Cherokee, Catawba, Sugaree, Waxhaw, Anishinaabe, Anacostan, Ottowa, Potawatomi, Lenape, and Chumash peoples.
We were clear that we wanted to continue our solidarity work with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and continue urging more philanthropic organizations in the Bay Area to pay their Shuumi Land Tax. We also knew that in order to continue being in right relationship with local Indigenous communities and contribute to the healing of the lands we occupy, we had to do more.
Last April, through the leadership of three staff members leaning into possibility, the Justice Funders staff voted to increase our budget allocation for Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes. We committed to continue paying our Shuumi Land Tax at the same percentage annually, while also paying up to two additional Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes in FY 23–24 at the same percentage.
Using a percentage to calculate our Land Tax contributions allows us to be accountable for larger contributions as our budget continues to grow.
What does it mean to come correct?
To determine which two additional Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes to begin contributing to, we grounded ourselves in our context, keeping two things in mind:
- Deciding on two out of several Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes we could pay is not about scarcity. Our intention is to continue growing our commitment. We have learned so much about what it means to come correct in our work with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust over the years. We hope to bring those lessons on how to begin building right relationships to our next commitments.
- Deciding on two additional Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes is not about ourselves or what we think is right. It is about being mindful of all the relationships in our movement ecosystems, and understanding where we have the most alignment and impact. We want to honor the unique contexts of each of the Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes, their infrastructure, and where they are on their journeys, as well as where we are on our own journey and where we have influence in philanthropy.
We sought to identify the additional Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes based on where Justice Funders’ staff are located so that we can build deeper relationships, as well as where we have an organized base of members so that we can build real philanthropic power for land rematriation.
The two additional Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes that best fulfilled these criteria are:
- The Yunakin Land Tax to support the work of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula; and
- Kuuy Nahwá’a Guest Exchange to support the work of Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, a Tongva-led organization created to steward lands in Tovaangar, the traditional Tongva region, encompassing the greater Los Angeles basin.
We are proud to both pay our Indigenous Land & Honor Taxes as well as to dedicate staff time to building right relationships with Indigenous communities.
Philanthropy’s Role in Land Rematriation
We know that philanthropic wealth has been accumulated through the theft of Indigenous lands and the exploitation of communities of color, and that philanthropic institutions have a particular responsibility to contribute to the healing of the lands they occupy and to enter into a restorative relationship with local Indigenous communities.
We encourage philanthropies across the U.S. to learn whose land you are on; support your local Indigenous communities; and pay land taxes where your staff, board of directors, and grantees live and work. Paying Indigenous Honor & Land taxes is one step in a long-term process of healing, action, and repair.
A list of Indigenous Honor & Land Taxes include:
- Shuumi Land Tax — Lisjan Ohlone (East Bay, CA)
- Yunakin Land Tax — Ramaytush Ohlone (San Francisco, CA)
- Wiyot Honor Tax — Wiyot Nation (Humboldt Bay region, CA)
- Kuuy Nahwá’a Guest Exchange — Tongva (Los Angeles region, CA)
- Real Rent Duwamish — Duwamish (Seattle, WA)
- Honor Native Land Tax — Tiwa/Pueblo (Albuquerque, NM)
- Manna-hatta Fund — Lenape, Wappinger, Haudenosaunee, Matinecock (New York City, NY)
Other ways to show up for Indigenous communities include building relationships and supporting local Indigenous organizing, funding land rematriation efforts, shifting the philanthropic narrative to include land rematriation as a key strategy for our change work, and transferring land ownership to Indigenous stewardship.
We are humbled by the many opportunities to heal the land and our relationships with Indigenous people. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.
