2022 Grant Recipient Review: Tule & Eric - Understory Collective

“While we applied to WGNF to build a land-based NFT that would reflect forest health in real time as a way to visualize and fundraise for native land stewardship, the viability of this model consistently declined over the last 12 months. In the first half of this grant participation, conversations with [experts in the sector], plus online research and conversations with peers made clear that NFTs had lost significant viability and market power since we applied in winter 2022, and that to build our initial vision would cost far more than that product would be worth."

"...Eric was at a land-back event that successfully sold beautiful posters. While the art wasn't specifically connected to the fundraising cause, we saw this example as a simple, effective option for expanding our product offerings. Without abandoning the initial NFT idea (which we had already scaled down due to market conditions), we redirected focus and funds to turning Vikki’s [Karuk Tribe Member Vikki Preston] artwork into posters."

"We hired design student Cierra Okere to convert the art into colored posters and stickers and sold these alongside the NFTs. Both mediums conveyed artwork that was place-based and intimately connected with the cause itself, and at our launch event we displayed them alongside descriptions that Vikki wrote explaining her inspiration for the piece, what each symbol/color/pattern meant, and the folklore and stories behind the piece."

"In addition to switching our product offering, we switched our focus towards education and community partnership over just sales. It became clear, that seeding support for prescribed fire and support between the Stanford and Karuk communities was exciting and helpful to our partners at the Karuk tribe, and synergistic with our art/poster sales. In this way, our launch event became a product/goal in its own way, and aside from the sales made at that event, we were proud to put on an event that facilitated such deep learning, community engagement, and solidarity."

"Our main takeaway from working with the Karuk Tribe is that progress moves at the speed of trust. Navigating a business relationship with members of the Karuk tribe amidst a surpisingly complicated social-political dynamic between Stanford and California tribes reminded us that trust, listening, and continual-reassessment of what respect and helpfulness look like are critical practices when working in a space like this."

"As such, our organization goals changed from delivering the vision Eric and I created to serving the vision of the Karuk Eco-Cultural Revitilization Fund through our unique skillsets."

"We met our project goals of fundraising for the Karuk Tribe’s critical and model fire stewardship and leveraging art as a bridge between climate-focused, bay area communites and indigenous leaders on the ground. While we didn’t meet our goal of creating a new financial mechanism that uses non-fungibility and data oracles to capture value in a way that better and more inclusively supports stewardship efforts, we are nonetheless proud of our exploration of this space."

"The opportunity to think boldly, creatively, and always with our mission and impact in mind, was a powerful experience for Eric and I, uniquely afforded to us by the generosity of the William G Nash Foundation."

"Over the course of a year, we spoked with numerous Karuk fire practitioners and artists, digital designers, NFT gallery owners, and folks in the conservation finance space. We learned about and practiced effective community engagement and listening, and came out the other side of our project better listeners, communicators, community partners, and design thinkers."