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It wasn’t only technical skills that Wade Fernandez gained during his time at a recent master recording workshop.

“It gave me permission to be me,” he said, an epiphany he experienced when one of the professors complimented his work.

Fernandez, an enrolled member of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin and an accomplished musician, music and video producer, completed several music classes as a fellow of the First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership program and a recipient of the Rural Business Enterprise grant.

Fernandez, who was a 2010 Community Spirit Award recipient and 2011 Cultural Capital grantee, has spent several years working to preserve the Menominee language by incorporating it in his music. The classes he took—lyric writing, master recording and music marketing—were insightful and exciting, Fernandez said, and especially helpful for a boost of confidence.

The recording class gave him an opportunity to work directly with producers who have worked alongside musicians including Sting, Steely Dan, and Vince Gill. He was familiar with several of the skills the producers taught.

“It’s helped me to not be so critical of myself. Perfectionism has slowed me down. You get more critical as your ear becomes better and the vision of what you want becomes clearer.”

During the lyric writing class, Fernandez worked on strengthening his skills in the side of music production that challenges him.

“My strength has always been the melodies,” he said. “Marrying that with writing has always been a mystery. It was nice to focus on the lyrics.”

Fernandez draws inspiration not only from his culture, but also from his family. Raising five children between the ages of six and 13 keeps him busy—and focused.

“Kids have given me inspiration and made me more grounded,” he said. One of his most recent music videos includes his son. The production was completed as a result of the classes he took.

“First Peoples Fund has helped support my music and my art and helps me support my community,” he said.

In addition to the classes supported by First Peoples Fund, Fernandez has been able to purchase equipment that he has used to create documentaries for his community about health, nutrition, pollution and diabetes.

“It’s been a great, and important, part of my work,” he said.    

Visit www.wadefernandez.com to learn more about Fernandez or hear his music.

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For Duane Goodwin, there is no better way to start a day of rock sculpting than very early in the morning—in the cool of the shade.

"It is messy and it is hard work," said Goodwin, who is a renowned Native artist and one of this year's First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital grantees. "But it is wonderful work—a wonderful challenge to see something in the rock, and bring the spirit out of the rock."

Goodwin shared his passion and expertise with community members this summer as part of the Cultural Capital program, first conducting a birch bark basketmaking workshop in June and then a stone carving workshop in July.

Goodwin, who is a full-time professor at Leech Lake Tribal College in Minnesota and also received a Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund last year, said the grant program has encouraged him to continue with his art.

"I've been teaching since 1973," he said, and it is a challenge to find the time and energy to do his sculpting on the side. After more than 40 years of sculpting rock, he said, the workshops reminded him of his passion for the art form.

"It's given me more inspiration to do it fulltime," he said, which is a possibility with retirement in the future.

The birch bark workshop taught students the traditional strategy of gathering materials from the woods.

"Today they are using more synthetic fibers to sew baskets," he said. "My objective was to get them to use all natural materials again."

Students were also taught about one of the best ways to make a sturdy, attractive basket, which involves stripping and steaming ash bark to form hoops for the basket frame.

"There's a lot of preparation, but the end result is a very sturdy basket. The old style is more authentic, stronger and has more aesthetic value."

During the stone carving workshop, Goodwin elected to only work with four students, who he described as "motivated and interested."

"They were easy to connect with, they listened and they were familiar with the tools," he said, which made it easy for him to share his private collection of resources and tools with them. The students learned about the geology of rocks, selected a rock from Goodwin's collection and spent three hours a day for two weeks carving.

Working hand-in-hand with students who have a desire to learn is inspirational, he said.

"I couldn't have done it without the grant," he said. "It was a good experience to share what I know and it is an opportunity to build an appreciation for the arts."

He carried that new energy with him recently as he worked on a new sculpture carved out of a rare piece of rock.

"The source of the rock is exhausted and I got one last piece," he said. "It is a beautiful, yellow golden color."

After studying it for several days, his idea emerged. He is carving two eagles, a crow, and a crane out of the 80-pound rock. And when he is done, he will turn to another project.

"I don't take breaks," he said. "I just want to keep producing sculpture after sculpture after sculpture."

There was no better way for First Peoples Fund to honor Susan Malutin than to take the time to travel to the very place where she is having such an impact.

Malutin was honored recently in a Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award ceremony at the Native Village of Afognak's Dig Afognak Camp Site in Alaska.

"They had to fly to Kodiak Island and then take a skiff across the bay into the Afognak camp," said Malutin. "It made me feel so good that they would put that effort in to come all that way."

Malutin was not the only award recipient to experience an honoring ceremony close to home.

Community Spirit Award ceremonies were also held in North Dakota, in honor of Georgianna Houle, and in Maine, in honor of Watie Akins, over the past two months. They joined fellow honorees Denise Lajimodiere, Cyril Lani Pahinui, Vicky Takamine, who were honored in Hawaii this summer.

The awards are given to recognize the exceptional passion, wisdom and purpose the recipients bring to their art and the communities they serve.

"The resolve and determination shown by each of the individuals to pass down Native traditions touches us in ways that are often difficult to express," said Lori Pourier, president. "It was a joy to meet each of these recipients personally and to be among them in their communities."

Akins, a member of the Abenaki in the Northeast, has focused much of his life's recent work on restoring and passing along the Penobscot Nation's traditional songs through research, recordings, apprenticeship programs and work with local school students. Some of his family was able to attend the ceremony, which at times brought tears to his eyes.

"I thought the whole ceremony was good, every part was a touching experience."

The star quilt blanket, which is given to each CSA honoree, was a special gift, Akins said. He hopes that the attendees of the ceremony—particularly young people in his community—were inspired by the energy and resources available to them to move forward with cultural revitalization.

"I hope they get into it," he said.

The ceremony to honor Georgianna Houle was held in her hometown of Belcourt, North Dakota. Houle, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, first learned to weave red willow baskets at the age of nine while watching her mother and grandmother. She has spent several years visiting local schools and community colleges, teaching children and adults how to weave the baskets.

She hopes to continue teaching and selling the baskets and is one of several artists who will teach at the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association's new location in Belcourt.

Malutin, who has spent the last 30 years mastering the lost art of traditional skin sewing, has been credited with helping revitalize the Native culture and art of the Alutiiq people—a movement that that has rejuvenated elders and prompted the building of a Native museum.

She has traveled to countries all over the world to research Native pieces of clothing and artifacts from the island and spends time working with village schools to teach skin sewing and other Native traditions. She also spends time at the Afognak site several times a year to help teach at Native educational camps.

The honoring ceremony for her was intimate and beautiful, Malutin said.

"The whole camp was there and it was an amazing experience," she said.

Because the ceremony was at the camp, and not in town, the students were able to attend and felt comfortable to speak.

"These are normally shy kids," Malutin said. "But you become like a family here, and they were brave enough to talk about how I interacted in their lives. That was the greatest reward for me."

Malutin also felt a validation for her work, and a resurgence of energy to continue.

"I felt that yes, I am leaving my footprint in the culture," she said.

Uncertainty and self-doubt about whether she was teaching the traditions correctly, or instructing the students in a way that would encourage and challenge them, have always been in the back of her mind, she said.

"We have so few elders who remember how to do the parkas or how to sew skins," she said, and it was always her fear that she wasn't demonstrating it correctly, or making a difference in the lives of the people in her community.

The ceremony changed that, she said, especially after hearing from the students.

"It was such a family-oriented ceremony and I could see that we do have a really vibrant Native community here, and we are passing it down to the next generations."

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This is the final profile in a series focused on the 2013 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award recipients. In the past five issues of e-Spirit, you have met the six men and women who are being honored in communities across the country this year.

Roadblocks.

Challenges to overcome.

Mountains to climb.

Whatever you want to call them, Watie Akins has found the strength to face a number of obstacles in his quest to restore his Tribe’s Native traditions and song.

Akins, a member of the Abenaki Tribe, has focused much of his life’s work on restoring and passing along the Penobscot Nation’s traditional songs through research, recordings, apprenticeship programs and work with local school students. The music, he said, is in danger of disappearing completely.

It is for his passionate pursuit to rediscover that music that he has been named a recipient of the 2013 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund. His work hasn’t been without heartache, he said.

“It is hard,” he said, particularly because the younger generations don’t have a collective memory of the beauty or the depth of the Native culture or traditions, particularly the music.

Akins said he didn’t either—until he took the time and energy to research his ancestors. In 2003, he was awarded a one-month Rockefeller Fellowship Grant at the Newberry Library in Chicago to further research Abenaki-Penobscot archived language and music materials.

When his fellowship was finished, he continued his research—at the Canadian Museum, the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, the Maine Historical Society, and with old cassette tapes recorded by his parents and other tribal members from the 1930s to the mid-1970s.

His determination will benefit generations to come, said Gretchen Faulkner, director of the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine.

“Watie’s dedication to documenting the material is vital to maintaining the traditions and passing it on to future generations,” she said.

Maine Folklife Center Director Pauleena MacDougall agreed.

“He has shown an unflagging interest in accurately preserving Penobscot traditions not only for his own people but as a way of educating others as well,” she added.

The remedy to keeping the traditions alive now, Akins says, is to go right to the people who will make that happen in the future—the kids. In 2007, Akins began compiling more than 120 traditional songs to be learned and recorded by others and then taught in schools. The mission was urgent, he said, because the Maine legislature had passed a law requiring the teaching of the Native culture in public schools. Before that, Akins said, Native people were described in history books as extinct, and Maine maps lacked recognition of the four Abenaki reservations.

“I felt compelled to present to the people of Maine as well as our own people a musical history of our culture,” Akins said.

Time in the classroom is the perfect opportunity to light a fire under the younger generation, he said.

“I hope the students get the idea that they want to learn and participate in this type of music, rather than what is on the TV or radio,” he said. “I am hoping it will rub off on at least a few minds.”

Akins has continued his work despite several life-threatening medical issues. In 2006, at the age of 72, he suffered a stroke. After physical therapy, he was able to resume his music, using the hand drum and shaker. In 2011, he suffered another stroke, this time severe and requiring him to use a walker to move around. The music project has been a strong motivator to recover. He hopes to eventually write his own songs, using the traditional elements used by his ancestors.

“Knowing the rudiments of what our ancestors did for our music, I will use those to create songs,” he said.

He is not entirely alone in his work. Akins is mentoring a young man who loves the history of the music and can speak the Native language.

“He is absolutely the right person to help me pass it along,” Akins said.

The award from First Peoples Fund is also encouraging, he added.

“This is a good thing, to have this recognition. It means a lot to me.” he said. “It has energized me. It has refreshed me.”

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To honor a woman who has demonstrated a steadfast patience and passion to maintain her tribe’s traditional art forms, First Peoples Fund will host the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards—the North Dakota edition, in Georgianna Houle’s hometown of Belcourt, North Dakota, on Thursday, July 18, 2013.

The event, which will take place from 1-4 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus on Highway 5, will honor Houle, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

“Georgianna has set a wonderful example for the people in her community through her willingness and effort to pass along the traditions and culture of her tribe,” said First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier. “We are excited to join her community in honoring her work, her legacy and her future as a culture bearer.”

Houle first learned to weave red willow baskets at the age of nine while watching her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother learned the art by studying a migratory worker who weaved baskets as they rode a freight train to work and passed the skill on to her family members.

Houle has since focused on doing the same—passing the art form from her generation to the next—in the hope that it provides them with a solid cultural foundation and a sustainable way to make a living.

Houle said she was honored to receive a CSA and to join a group of artists who have demonstrated a deep sense of purpose and consistency in sharing their art with their communities.

The awards are given each year to recognize the exceptional passion, wisdom and purpose the recipients bring to their art and the communities they serve. This year’s CSA honoring ceremonies are taking place right in the communities where the artists live and work, giving the people who are most impacted by the work of the recipient the chance to encourage and celebrate alongside the artist.

Houle has spent several years visiting local schools and community colleges, teaching children and adults how to weave the baskets, which can be challenging and tedious to make. Her baskets have been sold regionally and some of her grandmother’s baskets have been displayed in the Smithsonian Institute.

“She continues to be committed to holding onto the traditions that are so important to our tribe,” said Leah McCloud, tourism director for the Tribal Mountain Band of Chippewa Tourism. “Each art piece is authentic in design and creation.”

Houle said she hopes to continue teaching and selling the baskets and is one of several artists who will teach at the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association’s new location in Belcourt.

“Georgianna’s willingness to mentor and teach others, so they too can benefit from their tribe’s traditional art forms, is a testament to her work ethic and spirit,” Pourier said. “We look forward to recognizing her for her hard work.”

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Vicky Takamine recalled how humbling the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards ceremony in Hawaii was for her--and how special it was to be surrounded by artists she has worked with for so many years. Cyril Lani Pahinui called it "incredibly moving." And Denise Lajimodiere, who traveled to the ceremony from her home in Fargo, North Dakota, called it a "life changing experience" full of memories to "last me a lifetime."

In fact, Lajimodiere said that she couldn’t help but weep as First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier described the work she has done to revitalize her tribe’s Native traditions.

“I have never heard my own words read to an audience with such passion,” she said. “It was one of the most extraordinary experiences. I have never seen my life through the perspective of someone else.”

The three artists celebrated with family, friends and First Peoples staff at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii, earlier this month. The ceremony honored Takamine, of Honolulu, Hawaii; Pahinui, of Waipahu, Hawaii; and Lajimodiere, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, for the exceptional passion, wisdom and purpose the recipients bring to their art and the communities they serve.

“I was very moved,” said Pahinui, who performed during the ceremony on a slack-key guitar, a Native Hawaiian instrument he has spent most of his life playing, mastering and sharing with others in an effort to preserve Native Hawaiian music.

Takamine, who owns and directs the Pua Ali'i 'Ilima dance studio in Hawaii to celebrate and pass on the traditional hula dance, was honored that her students helped organize the event. Takamine, who performed a dance solo at the event, said it was a humbling experience to be in the spotlight for the evening.

“We don’t like to take the limelight,” she said.

Her work, which includes advocating for the continuation of hula and the perpetuation of language, history, culture and values of the Hawaiian people, was celebrated with the gift of a star quilt.

“When they unfolded the star quilts, it was so unexpected,” Takamine said. “We understand the time it takes to make a quilt.”

Pahinui and Lajimodiere were also draped in star quilts and said it was one of the most memorable highlights of the evening.

“I thought it was just for them,” Lajimodiere said, of her fellow honorees. “When I got one too, I was just weeping. To receive an award for something I love and have dedicated my life to is extremely meaningful.”

Takamine said the gathering of like-minded women from other cultures and tribes from around the world was unifying and refreshing.

“There were these very powerful, strong, culturally-grounded women in the audience,” she said. “And to be part of that was very moving.”

Pahinui agreed. “All of these cultures coming together in one evening… it was beautiful,” he said.

Lajimodiere was happy to share her life’s work and Native culture with the staff and Native Hawaiians who gathered for the event, and spent several days during the week of the ceremony soaking in Hawaiian culture.

“It was well organized and I felt very taken care of,” she said.

Guests were invited to a Native Hawaiian luau, and Lajimodiere enjoyed seeing Takamine and her dancers perform.

“It was fun to see her in her element, in her culture and Native song and dance,” Lajimodiere said. “I reveled in it.”

She also fell in love with an early morning, traditional Native Hawaiian ceremony that involves chanting and clapping as the sun rises for the day.

“We got up at 3 a.m.,” she said. “It was an emotional, beautiful ceremony. I never wanted to leave.”

It ended with a dip in the ocean, which Native Hawaiian people believe will bring blessings.

Lajimodiere, who has since returned to her work in Minnesota, said she made some new friends in Hawaii and hopes to return for a visit. One of the best aspects of the ceremony, she added, was the effort made by First Peoples Fund to bring together people who have made it their life’s work to save and rejuvenate different cultures around the world.

“They did an incredibly beautiful job,” she said. “There were a lot of tears at the honoring.”

This is the fifth in a series of profiles on the 2013 Community Spirit Awards recipients. In upcoming issues of e-Spirit, First Peoples Fund will continue to introduce to you the remarkable artists and culture bearers who are receiving the honor this year.

Susan Malutin was determined to learn how to sew traditional Native Alaskan clothing and beading—so much so that she traveled, tracked down and convinced elders in multiple Alaskan communities to teach it to her.

Malutin, who is one of this year’s Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award recipients, lives on Kodiak Island in Alaska and has spent the last 30 years mastering the lost art of traditional skin sewing and helping pass it on to younger generations.

She is at the center of a revitalization of the Native culture and art of the Alutiiq people that has rejuvenated elders, prompted the building of a Native museum and helped facilitate programs to bring back the Native language.

“It is a culture that was dormant for such a long time,” she said, adding that oppression and an influx of Russian culture helped bury much of their traditional language and culture.

While Malutin worked for the state of Alaska, she traveled to other communities and always carried sinew and a piece of fur with her. When she met someone who knew how to do traditional skin sewing, she asked to be taught.

“I would corner them,” she said, laughing.

Eventually, she began to travel all over the world—to places like Russia, Finland and Denmark—to research and spend time at museums that have pieces of clothing and artifacts from the island.

Even though artifacts from their region have been located in other museums, it would take great time, money and effort to borrow or acquire them for Alaskan museums, she said. While it’s fortunate that someone has the pieces of history, many of the artifacts are not even displayed at some of the museums around the world. In Finland, Malutin viewed artifacts from her homeland that had been in storage for 140 years.

“We were some of the first Natives to get to see them,” she said.

It has still been an honor to view the work, she said. With the help of others, she has been able to recreate pieces for display in the island’s first Native museum. It opened 14 years ago and was a major step in renewing the community’s interest and support of the old traditions.

Community member Linda Ross said Malutin is inspirational and has dedicated great time and effort in sharing the heritage of the Alutiiq people.

“She is in many ways, bringing a transformation to the community of Kodiak Island. The adults and children of Alutiiq heritage have been encouraged and have grown in their knowledge of their heritage by all of Susan's efforts.”

April G.L. Counceller, of the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, said Malutin is a brilliant artist.

“But her overall passion is to support the Alutiiq community,” she said.

There is still so much work to be done, Malutin believes.

“I wish our people could see what fine work was made,” she said, including fur hats, slippers, infant boots, mittens and dance boots. “It’s just incredible… the intricacy and time it took to make these beautiful items they wore every day.”

Malutin continues to teach and travel. She participates in “Culture Week,” a time devoted by each village school to cultural activities, and she helps lead cultural activities and skin sewing at women’s retreats, the museum and multi-cultural programs on the island. The cultural renewal has united generations and their communities, she said.

“It’s given elders encouragement and renewal of spirit,” she said. “It reconnects them with their history and their childhood.”

Malutin said she was honored to receive the award and that her greatest hope is to pass on the attributes of her ancestors, as much as their traditions.

“I want to show the young people they can carry on those characteristics that made our culture strong,” she said. “They can use it in all aspects of their lives by their attitudes and actions and how they role model.”

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This is the fourth in a series of profiles on the 2013 Community Spirit Awards recipients. In upcoming issues of e-Spirit, First Peoples Fund will continue to introduce to you the remarkable artists and culture bearers who are receiving the honor this year.

Denise Lajimodiere is a dancer, a poet, an artist.

But no matter what task is in front of her, she says she will always identify with one special calling.

“I’m a teacher at heart,” said Lajimodiere, whose passion for passing down the traditional dance of her Chippewa tribe has set her apart as a distinguished leader in her community of Moorhead, Minnesota.

Lajimodiere, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, has been named as a recipient of the 2013 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award.

A dancer of more than 40 years, she was one of the first members of her tribe to bring back the traditional jingle dress style of dance and has worked with girls and young women on the proper way to turn the jingles and make the dresses, belts, leggings and moccasins for their outfits. Her influence extends far beyond dance, community members say.

She has also worked to bring back birch bark biting, and will continue to give workshops on the art form, which dates back to the pre-Columbus era.

During the springtime, Lajimodiere helps host a ceremony in honor of the trees before peeling the bark. The layers, which are as thin as an onionskin, must be meticulously peeled. The larger the pieces, the better, she said, which is an incredible challenge because of the delicacy of the pieces. After years of experience, Lajimodiere can close her eyes and bite the bark with her eyeteeth, slowly loosening each layer from another.

“It takes a lot of practice,” she said.

Dance and bark biting are not the only outlets Lajimodiere has used to express her heritage and knowledge.

Lajimodiere is also at work on academic manuscripts, including research on boarding school survivors and dissertation research on Native American women leaders.

In her “free time,” she spends time writing poetry, which is sometimes only accomplished through writing or art retreats. She recently published a book of poetry called “Dragonfly Dance,” and has found that the peace and quiet of a getaway is important for her work.

“I just need time and space, away from the city and busy life,” she said.

Leslie LaFountain, an instructor at Turtle Mountain Community College, said Lajimodiere should be applauded for her tireless efforts to share the tribe’s traditions with new generations. Her patient and diligent work to bring back the traditional Jingle Dress style of the Ojibwa dance is especially inspiring. LaFountain said it was almost three decades ago that Lajimodiere was instrumental in reigniting the popularity of the tribe’s annual pow wow by forming a committee, fundraising and doing presentations.

To this day, the pow wows are a “source of great pride for this community,” LaFountain wrote in a nomination letter about Lajimodiere.

Lajimodiere works in Fargo, North Dakota, and returns to the reservation to make presentations, teach, and share her love of jingle dresses and dancing.

“Denise is a humble individual, champion dancer, life-long learner and an active participant in pursuits that foster public good,” LaFountain said.

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It was while learning to weave baskets from tribal elders that Theresa Secord had a revelation.

“I looked around and I could see that I was the only person under the age of 50 learning,” she said. “I could see that the tradition would be gone in a generation or two.”

That moment of clarity led to Secord’s distinguished work as an artist, a trainer and mentor to up-and-coming Native artists, and a valuable partner to First Peoples Fund. Secord, who is a member of the Penobscot tribe and has served on the FPF board of directors since 2010, has helped guide the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) into a leading role as one of the state’s most important preservation organizations. The alliance is a cultural organization whose mission is to preserve traditional ash and sweetgrass basketry among the four tribes in Maine.

Secord’s work has not gone unnoticed. Most recently, she was named the 2013 Master Craft Artist by the Maine Crafts Association. The association selected Secord because of her contributions to the craft as well as her commitment to supporting Native basketmakers. FPF also honored Secord in 2009 with a Community Spirit Award.

Secord began making baskets in the late 1980s. She helped start MIBA in 1993 to not only preserve the basketmaking tradition, but break down some of the barriers Native Americans face in sustaining their cultural traditions.

She has been credited with the resurgence of the art form. Since the alliance’s inception, the average age of basketmakers has dropped from 63 to 40 and the numbers of weavers has increased from 55 to 200.

“She is an outstanding example of a person who sees a possibility, seizes an opportunity and takes action for the betterment of her community—and all peoples,” said Lori Pourier, president of First Peoples Fund. “Theresa Secord is synonymous with sustaining culture.”

But Secord is quick to give the credit to others. Even with the rising number of young basketmakers as her work grew, she said something was missing initially in the equation of producing successful, passionate Native artists.

And that’s where First Peoples Fund came in, she said.

“These artists are becoming really successful, but they often are lacking the business knowledge, how to do taxes and marketing… how to be an entrepreneur. We can help them become successful basketmakers, but we really needed help with the other piece.”

The partnership with First Peoples Fund, which has helped connect those artists with their local Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and provided numerous trainings in the technical skills of running a business, has been vitally important to artists, Secord said.

“It’s a vibrant, great collaboration,” she said. “We are making a difference.”

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This is the third in a series of profiles on the 2013 Community Spirit Awards recipients. In upcoming issues of e-Spirit, First Peoples Fund will continue to introduce to you the remarkable artists and culture bearers who are receiving the honor this year.

‍Even if success as a musician had never come, Cyril Lani Pahinui said he still would have been doing what he loves best all these years—playing and teaching Hawaiian music. Pahinui, who is a Native Hawaiian in Waipahu, followed in the footsteps of a famous father and fine-tuned the art of the slack-key guitar.

His resume is extensive and impressive—stints at Carnegie Hall, tours around the world, contributions to Grammy-award winning albums—and he most recently has enjoyed a long-time career as a teacher at the Pahinui School of Hawaiian Music. This winter, he was named one of this year’s First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award honorees.

But it’s a simple love of a Hawaiian art form—and a deep desire and passion to pass it on—that Pahinui says keeps him motivated.

“I love music,” said Pahinui, who learned discipline and commitment from his father, Gabby Pahimui.

Pahinui started playing at a very young age, and at the age of 15 was invited to join his father’s band.

“For me that was like receiving a Grammy,” he said. “Just to know that he recognized my commitment and considered me to be on his level. I also think that was the day that I knew I would continue my music.”

His father’s insistence that his instruments always be tuned correctly became a good learning tool for Pahinui.

“I am so grateful for his strict discipline. My training taught me to tune and play by ear and from the heart, and that is what I still do, even today,” he said.

The award from FPF will allow Pahinui to continue one of his greatest passions—teaching. He also plans to develop a DVD series that would teach tuning, and be filmed on site to provide historical context for participants. He hopes to inspire a younger generation, in the same way he was inspired by his father.

“I want to help up-and-coming artists,” he said. “I am so honored to do whatever I can to help. This is a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity for me.”

It’s also an important opportunity for Hawaiian culture and music, he added.

“We need to pass on the tradition,” he said, particularly of an art form that plays such an important role in the history of the islands. “Slack-key is a guitar style rooted in nearly two centuries of Hawaiian history and is now a catalyst for preserving Hawaiian culture and language.”

Pahinui teaches his classes in the “kanikapila” style, which means that students learn from their teachers through jam sessions.

“Through this one-on-one, in-the-moment kind of learning, students of all levels are guided through simple exercises to create unique Hawaiian music sounds,” he said.

Pahinui said it’s an honor to receive the Community Spirit Award. “It allows me to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It is a blessing from heaven.”

Pahinui is well-known in Hawaii for his music accomplishments and his family legacy, said Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Art Program Specialist Denise Maile Miyahana. His dedication to education is unparalleled, she said.

“He is the most patient and loving teacher that any young person could have. His compassion for their needs is embracing,” she said.

During a site visit one time, Miyahana said she was amazed at what she saw. “I followed him from one community to the next, teaching group after group in one day, always with the same smile, same quiet voice and same stirring artistry,” she said. “I already knew Cyril’s music. From the site visit, I came to know Cyril’s teaching and kind spirit.”

John Thatcher, principal of Connections Public Charter School, has witnessed the same. “He just has so much goodness and just wants to help,” he said. His patience with middle and high school students is outstanding, he added. “He just keeps talking and he doesn’t get mad… he’s just got this way of working with kids,” he said. “And they respond.”

Pahinui said he has no plans to slow down.

“No matter what job I had, I always stuck with Hawaiian music,” he said. “I will share, I will perform. I will never change. I will teach what I know. It’s not difficult. The kids, some day, they will have to carry it on.”

For Wade Fernandez, one of the sweetest things about receiving a grant from First Peoples Fund is being recognized by the organization as an artist and a voice for people who he says desperately need to be heard.

“As a Native American artist, you sing about things on the reservation and Native people, and you want to do more than you can,” he said.

A USDA Federal Rural Business Enterprise grant from First Peoples Fund will help him do exactly that. As an enrolled member of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin, Fernandez will receive $5,000 worth of technical assistance money to help obtain the tools and assistance needed to run a successful music business.

Tribal artists play a critical role in strengthening community economies and lifting Native peoples out of poverty, which is part of the reason that First Peoples Fund partners with artists like Fernandez to help grow their artistic endeavors.

Every year, five to seven Artist in Business Leadership fellows receive a $5,000 working capital grant from First Peoples Fund, which offers technical assistance, professional development and industry?specific group training, and increased access to new market opportunities. In turn, the fellows become mentors and viable leaders in strengthening the arts sector of their tribal economies.

“The program is empowering artists like Wade to not just have a voice, but to help offer the tools and resources oftentimes needed to spread that voice across the country,” said Miranne Walker, program officer at First Peoples Fund. “Wade is doing remarkable things, and we are so happy to work alongside him… and to celebrate his work.”

Fernandez, who is an Artist in Business Leadership fellow and a former Community Spirit Award recipient, is a musician taking online music classes as well as lyric writing classes with his grant. He’s also signed up for a master recording class in Indiana.

Fernandez plans to use the assistance and training to produce a CD of his tribe’s language, which he says is in danger of disappearing. “The original speakers are dying and we need to do as much as we can,” he said.

He hopes to eventually develop a curriculum around the CD, so it can be used in educational settings and taught to younger generations.

Grants from FPF are important for artists like himself, he said, because they encourage and support ideas and skills that might otherwise go unused or sidetracked.

“Technical training will help me do things in a quicker and professional way,” he said. “If you don’t have business skills to promote your work and your message, you have less of a chance of being successful.” T

o learn more about Fernandez, visit his website at www.wadefernandez.com.

Even when the red willow wood Georgianna Houle uses to make baskets cuts and gnaws into her hands, she keeps working.

Pain isn’t a good enough reason to stop something she loves and feels a deep-rooted family and cultural connection to, she says. It’s that inherent focus that made Houle one of this year’s First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award winners.

“I was surprised and very happy to be selected,” said Houle, who lives on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.

Her grandmother, who first discovered the art by watching a migratory worker as they rode a freight train to work, passed down the tradition of basket making to her. She formed a deep bond with her grandmother, Selina, who also taught her how to sew dolls and do beadwork. When it came to learning how to make baskets from her mother and grandmother, Houle said it didn’t come easy.

“It was really hard for me at first,” she says. “My mother would challenge me.”

The baskets, which are made with red willow found near her home, can be used as decoration or for use around the home to hold items such as bread, laundry, or business cards, depending on the size. The wood, which is also referred to as Dogwood, must be picked before the spring and summer season. It has to be cleaned, and then shaved to reveal the signature colors associated with the baskets.

The work is worth it, Houle says, who has spent several years visiting local schools and community colleges, explaining the art form and giving hands-on training.

Her baskets have been sold regionally and some of her grandmother’s baskets have been displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. Selling her work has helped support her family, she says, and it’s always exciting when a customer takes the time to admire the art form.

“I’m grateful they are appreciative of my art,” she adds.

It has also been a way to focus on the positive while living on the reservation. Making the baskets, which require so much time and focus, is a way to relax and pray, she says.

Houle, who has received business training from First Peoples Fund, hopes to start a business selling more of the baskets. She has also partnered with the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association, which has a location in Belcourt. The Community Spirit Award, she says, is a wonderful, meaningful compliment.

“I feel really honored to be selected, and honored for my mother and grandmother who passed it on to me."