Respect, Appreciation, and Recognition: Leadership is Community Care.
Leadership is more than a directive role, it is ensuring that the community is taken care of. Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) recognizes the effort it takes to lead a community and provide the necessary resources to keep organizational work running. With the Sovereignty in Action (SIA) Awards now accepting nominations, take this as an opportunity to celebrate an individual whose work has made a meaningful impact in leading a community towards improving Indigenous sovereignty.
What Does Nominating an Individual for SIA Mean?
SIA distributes up to $100K in support of Indigenous-led individuals, grassroots groups, and community projects that embody sovereignty in action. Each recipient receives up to $2,500 to support their work — whether it's on the land, in language, or acts of resistance and care, or in the case of Indigenous Harm Reduction, supporting transformative Healing Justice activities like offering ceremonies.
How Indigenous Leadership Can Embrace Change While Sustaining Traditions
Our communities need innovative leaders to create and sustain practices that support Indigenous communities. The work done by previous SIA awardees highlight the importance of sustaining those communities though actions like the following:
Food sovereignty
Cultural revitalization
Land and water protection
Mental health and healing
Community organization
Language and traditional knowledge
Direct action
Emergency response
Ceremonies
Creative assistance
And more!
Innovation can provide cultural longevity. As we sustain our culture and our communities, ICA believes it’s important to think through innovation as we modernize traditional roots. Our community leaders can impact our younger generations by creating the foundational groundwork needed to sustain a prosperous future for our youth, through the work of climate justice and cultural sovereignty.
See previous organizational work and projects that were led by incredible leaders of their
respective communities here:
It is not only the individuals leading these initiatives that we celebrate, but also all of those who partake and engage with this important work. Our leaders embody the community of people who are actively making a difference in Indigenous sovereignty.
What Does Nominating Leaders Do for the Community?
Through the SIA awards, we hope these gifts not only honour the important work being done, but also reach broader communities, inspire others in these practices, and encourage youth to step into leadership roles. The next recipients of the Sovereignty in Action Awards could be you – or someone you know!
How Will ICA Select Official SIA Recipients?
All applications will be reviewed through a selection committee made up of ICA staff, our National Steering Committee (NSC) members, and Youth Leadership Council (YLC) members. To ensure the selection process is fair and unbiased, applications will be reviewed anonymously using a decision matrix and discussed as a committee.
ICA ensures that at least 50% of the selection committee is made up of non-staff members, with balanced representation across different biomes.
The SIA selection committee is responsible for reviewing all applications, choosing recipients, and offering feedback to improve the SIA selection process. The decision matrix helps ensure fairness, consistency, and diversity in selections.
Each application must meet the eligibility criteria and be evaluated through this matrix. In some cases, leadership may also review applications, individually.
Nominated individuals will need to have the following requirements to be considered eligible for the Awards:
Must be Indigenous-led.
Applicants can nominate leaders in their communities, or themselves!
Applicants must be at least 18 years of age.
Applicants must be located in Canada.
Applicants must be able to provide ICA with necessary reporting for future purposes.
Applicants must already be working on a project, a grassroots community group, an initiative, or any action-oriented contribution to Indigenous resurgence.
The details of eligibility requirements are outlined on the Sovereignty in Action page on our website:
While ICA would like to be able to support all grass-root, Indigenous-led initiatives through Sovereignty in Action, the SIA awards are a way for us to gift leaders in the community who are doing ground breaking work towards Indigenous Sovereignty.
Calls to Action: How to Apply
ICA will accept nominations twice a year. This current intake runs from June 18 to July 15, 2025, with recipients to be announced later this summer. Dates for the Fall intake will be announced at a later date.
Timeline:
Deadline to apply:
July 15, 2025Selection Process with Sovereignty in Action Committee:
July 21 - 24, 2025Awardee Announcements to Recipients:
July 28 - 31, 2025Social Media Recipients Announcements:
Announcements will be made periodically over the month of August 2025
Take Action to Support Indigenous-led Projects
Stand with Sovereignty – Stand with Us: Join the movement to uplift, support and empower Indigenous-led and grassroot initiatives.
Stand with Us – Share Your Vision: Indigenous Climate Action is proud to support YOUR sovereignty in action. Apply now for a chance to receive up to $2,500 to advance your Indigenous-led initiative.
Share with Your Networks: Help us reach wider audiences and potential recipients by sharing our blog and social media posts about SIA across your networks.
