The Daaga’ Award promotes healthy, clean, and sober Alaska Native communities by offering grants for groups that encompass the spirit of Daaga’, which is “get up, move, do something”.
The proposed projects should support the values of the Daaga’ Awards, which include contributing to the healing that lies within the local people, utilizing the strength of traditional values, and encouraging programs that integrate spiritual, social, and economic needs of the communities. Daaga’ encompasses the following beliefs:
- The source of healing lies in the ability of local people to help themselves.
- We should utilize the strength of our traditional values to focus on a healthy vision of the future
- We should work together to promote programs that integrate the spiritual, social, and economic needs of our people.
Projects that integrate the spiritual, social, and economic needs of our people, make us all stronger. The Daaga’ Award reflects our belief that communities are healthier when Native values are alive and traditional skills are prized-such as beadwork, artwork, hunting, and trapping.
Daaga’ awards are limited, and may be granted up to $3,000 per funding period. Depending on the number of proposals received and the need, the selected proposals may not always be funded for the full amount requested. For this reason, Daaga’ should be considered a supplement to the funding for a project.
Previous winners of the Daaga’ award include:
- Native Village of Tetlin – Tetlin proposes to teach youth about winter and spring traditional subsistence activities, including trapping rabbit and muskrat, along with ice fishing. It’s important for youth to know the basics of survival, trapping and ice fishing are vital skills in Alaska. Tetlin traditional values that are provided include, respect for animals, hard work, honor hunter success and honoring the tradition.
- Fairbanks Native Association – to put on a “Spring Fling” event for families in April 2022. As in past years, the 2022 Spring Fling will be implemented by FNA’s Community Services Department and will feature a variety of family-friendly, hands-on activity stations, music and dancing, and refreshments. The event will also provide “tool kits” containing beads for projects, and seeds for planting. Along with holiday bags to support healthy family living and sober holiday celebrations.
- Fort Yukon Bead Work Contest – To promote a beading contest, provide bead workand other materials for a bead contest for all ages here in our village age group will consist of 8–16-year-old, and 17-30 & up age group. This will promote the community members for living a drug and alcohol-free event.
For more information, contact Shareholder Outreach at 1-888-478-4755 (toll-free), 907-459-2127, or outreach@doyon.com.