By Sacred Fire Foundation
Honoring his leadership and tireless work for the rights of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, on November 26, 2016 the Sacred Fire Foundation presented Xané leader Marcos Terena with the Wisdom Fellowship award.
The award ceremony took place in Lima, Perú a Gala dinner during the The Latin America Indigenous Funders Conference, a unique event that brings leaders from the Indigenous, donor, and corporate worlds to the same table.
Sacred Fire Foundation works to support Indigenous Peoples worldwide through our grant program. Our educational programs help to bridge traditional wisdom to the modern culture as a way to create dialogue and societal change. Our Wisdom Fellowship Award is presented annually to honor the work of an Indigenous elder that has demonstrated lifelong achievement in bringing wisdom, leadership and learning to their people and their community.
This year we are honored to present the Wisdom Fellowship Award to Marcos Terena, a Xané leader who has devoted his life to working for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and for Mother Earth herself. In 1977, Terena founded the first Indigenous political movement in Brazil - the Union of Indigenous Nations. In 1992 he organized a landmark event in the struggle for Indigenous Peoples rights, the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Territories, Environment and Development. Marcos is also a founding member of the Inter-Tribal Committee, Land is Life, the International Alliance of Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, the Brazilian Indigenous Institute for Intellectual Property, the World Indigenous Games Festival, and the Call of the Earth Circle.
Past recipients include Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga Nation), Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Bön, Tibet), Tarcila Rivera Zea (Quechua, Perú) and Chief Caleen Sisk (Winnemem Wintu, USA).
Taking inspiration from a Mobius strip, Rodrigo Segura designed the Wisdom Fellowship award especially for Sacred Fire Foundation to symbolize the enduring quality of Ancient Wisdom
