The Cultural Conservancy (TCC)

The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) is a Native-led non-profit organisation based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1985, its mission is to protect and revitalise Indigenous cultures through the direct application of traditional knowledge and practices on ancestral lands.

It works with Native/Indigenous peoples locally and globally on community-based projects that are shaped by community requests and guided by the Native Advisory Council of Traditional Knowledge Holders, land-care practitioners, and community leaders. From language revitalisation and traditional carving projects to Indigenous agricultural sciences and traditional land tending, critical to its work is the acknowledgement of the sacred relationship Native peoples have to their lands and waters and the importance of this relationship to their physical, mental, and community health.

TCC is deeply rooted in Turtle Island (North America), with strong connections to Hawai’i, Central and South America, and Moana (the greater Pacific). It also increased its work with California Indian communities, including recognised tribes/sovereign nations, unrecognised tribes, Native organisations, and urban, intertribal Indian communities. It commits to Indigenous youth and elders and promotes intergenerational sharing and knowledge exchange.

Through its flagship Native Foodways Programme and its land project Heron Shadow, it:

  • Works to provide safe culturally-rooted spaces.
  • Provides access to resources for growing healthy, culturally appropriate foods including through planting, harvesting, processing, distributing, cooking and seed keeping.
  • Facilitates community-led transformation for those struggling with food access, land displacement, and physical, spiritual, and cultural health issues.
  • Community, Food
  • 2025
  • Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Award
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