2023-11-13T10:41:47-06:00 2022-12-31 882533599 WERSEN NONPROFIT CPAS LLC 4513 Lakeway Drive Bellingham WA 98229 990EZ 2022-01-01 810924820 Sacred Lands Conservancy dba Sacred Sea SACR 3603053880 2321 West Street Bellingham WA 98225 Julie Trimingham Secretary/Treasurer 3603053880 2023-11-13 1 Julie Trimingham 999009999 0 Keaton Wersen CPA P01957642 3607709369 X 0 AAL1 IAL1 2022 2023-04-26 12:10:37Z X www.sacredsea.org X X 149041 X 149041 149041 9938 115100 4152 31089 160279 -11238 111564 0 100326 111564 100326 111564 100326 0 0 111564 100326 X Indigenouse-led non-profit committed to promoting ancestral knowledge and practices for the protection and revitalization of the waters, culture, life and sacred sites of the Salish Sea. Film and Media coverage of our projects and issues: in the past 12 months, our own was article published in Grist Magazine, and other journalists have featured our involvement with Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut for Morning in America (tv); Vice News; Atmos Earth; The Guardian; King 5 news (tv); Channel 10 ABC aliate in Miami; the Bellingham Herald; and Seattle Met magazine. These are features; our eorts have been mentioned in countless other papers and shows. Additionally, we are working with the PBS series Native America (season 2) for an episode on Lummi eorts to protect salmon and the Salish Sea, focusing on ancestral reef net technology, a fishing method still practiced on Lummi Island. There are a number of film projects who are in correspondence with us, and one in active production (closing in on post- production). Resident Orca is a feature-length documentary film produced by Everyday Films and Urban Jungle Film; we are working with them exclusively to tell the story of Squil- le-he-le and Tah-Mahs's connection to and work for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. 0 21000 The Campaign to Bring Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut Home has seen dramatic changes in the past 12 months. The USDA finally inspected Miami Seaquarium and found it wanting in many ways. This report was made public. Our supporters amplified our call for an independent health assessment, as did the Mayor of Miami Dade County and the County Commission. Palace Entertainment sold the Miami Seaquarium to The Dolphin Company, who has been open to meaningful conversation with us. The executive producer of Resident Orca reached out to philanthropist Pritam Singh, who then founded Friends of Lolita, a non-profit committed to Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's best possible quality of life. Raynell sits on the board of FOL, as does Charles Vinick from our partner Whale Sanctuary Project. Friends of Lolita has successfully negotiated ongoing independent health assessments for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. The comprehensive Operational Plan that we commissioned from Whale Sanctuary Project was completed, and a site search for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's Xwlemi Tokw (Lummi Home) seapen in the Salish Sea was started. We set up a GoFundMe to finance the search and securing of a site, as well as provide for ongoing negotiations with Seaquarium and advocacy for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. We held a water ceremony with a powerful Lummi ceremonialist which was well-attended in-person and online, and was also covered by King 5 news and other outlets. In July, at the invitation of The Dolphin Company, Raynell travelled with a traditional Lummi healer to hold ceremony with Sk'aliCh'elh-tebaut at her tank. This is unprecedented and important healing work. It was also good to strengthen bonds with The Dolphin Company. We have invited the CEO and key personal of The Dolphin Company along with Pritam Singh and Friends of Lolita to a cultural visit to Lummi; we are hoping that this gathering happens this coming Fall. Sk'aliCh'elht-tenaut is still receiving from a chronic infection, but she is now, because of all the changes stated above, receiving excellent care. We are optimistic that she will recover enough so that we can then start talking about her future and possible homecoming. At every step of conversation and planning, Lhaq'temish values, culture, and spirit are present. 9938 66705 Podcast: it has been a steep learning curve in how to produce, record, and edit a podcast! We now have those skills and an outline for a first season. Jim Gates, senior podcast producer at NPR Seattle aliate KUOW was very helpful in mentoring us in 2021. We will send a rough draft of the first season to him for further input, and, potentially, co-production. Jared Tate, an acclaimed classical Chickasaw composer, agreed to compose original theme music for us. We recorded an interview with Lummi artist/writer Chenoa Egawa and have a rough cut of our first episode, "The People under the Waves," which focuses on Indigenous connection to whales. Other outlined episodes are about Treaty rights, salmon, reef netting, and Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. 0 12300 We are indigenizing the framework. This eort represents an unusual and powerful coalition of governmental entities, elected ocials, private corporations, non-profit organizations, individual activists and philanthropists all supporting an Indigenous claim.Advocacy: in 2021 we were in correspondence with Suzan del Bene about her proposed ORCA act, which unfortunately did not go to the floor. However, a very similar proposition, the SWIMS Act, which forbids the capture, breeding, and/or public display of cetaceans, has been introduced as legislation. We have submitted testimony and/or letters of support for the Salmon/Orca Summit hosted by Aliated Tribes of Northwest Indians; Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (ocial comment letter); the Lower Snake River Dams Draft report (we support breaching immediately).Rights of Nature: we were awarded a grant from the Na'ah Illahee Fund to participate in a cohort of other Indigenous groups working with the principles of the rights of nature. In particulate, we are interested in drafting Resolutions that would recognize the personhood of Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut, and plan to present this Resolutions to the Aliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the National Congress of American Indians. The hope is that these Resolutions would help mainstream the idea of Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's personhood, and from there the idea of killer whale personhood could also develop.Education: We are working with the Mountaineers to produce articles and blog posts about land acknowledgments, Treaty rights, place names, and the like. We have appeared at symposia including those hosted by the University of Washington Botanic Gardens ("Ecological Restoration and the YMCA Earth Service Corps.Tribal: we have prepared comprehensive presentations on the importance of our work to the Lummi people for the Lummi Indian Business Council, the Cultural Commission, and the Lummi Natural Resources and Fisheries Commission.Community: events include the afore-mentioned Water Ceremony at Xwe'chi'eXen and the upcoming Lummi on Lummi Island event, which will bring Lummi artists and non-profit organizations to join with Island artists and non-profit organizations for a day that will be about #LandBack, working together, reefnetting, Salish Sea and community healing. The day will conclude with a community blessing for a new totem pole to be held at the ancestral village site on Legoe Bay on Lummi Island.The Lummi Fishermen's Memorial will be a life-size bronze sculpture of a traditional Lhaq'temish woman dressed in a cedar cape and cedar hat. She will stand by the shore at Gooseberry Point, facing the setting sun, with her hands raised in thanks. She will watch over the fishermen going out to sea. Around the marble base on which she stands will be bronze memorial plaques on which the names of Lummi fishermen lost at sea will be inscribed.Each year, there will be a ceremony at this site, at the northwest corner of Fisherman's Cove at Gooseberry Point. Each year, the fleet will be blessed, and the names of all fishermen lost in the previous year will be read aloud.This Lummi Fishermen's Memorial is the vision of Sacred Lands Conservancy President Ellie Kinley. For the past six years, she has been raising money by serving salmon dinners at SeaFeast, the annual festival of the sea and seafood held in Bellingham. Ellie is one of the founders of SeaFeast.So far, Ellie has raised about $26,000. The original budget of $80,000 may well be revised upward as artists are consulted.We will be writing grants for this project, as well as continuing to sell salmon dinners at SeaFeast. The timeline of the project is yet to be determined, and will be informed by both financial readiness and artist selection. We will soon be in discussion with people who worked on the Bellingham Fishermen's Memorial and people in the bronze sculpture business. 0 34754 134759 Eleanor Kinley President 15.00 27300 0 0 Raynell Morris Vice President 28.00 51400 0 0 Julie Trimingham Secretary/Treasurer 20.00 36400 0 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Jan Bowman and Associates Inc 2200 Pacific Street Bellingham WA 98229 3607330956 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 NONE NONE 1 X 40250 159670 149041 348961 40250 159670 149041 348961 159120 189841 348961 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED Form 990-EZ, Part I, Line 10 - Grants and Similar Amounts Paid Activity Classification: Payments for whale sanctuary development. Grantee Name: The Whale Sanctuary Project. Grantee Address: 4100 Kanab Canyon Road Kanab, UT 84741. Grantee Relationship: No relationship. Amount Given: 9,638. Form 990-EZ, Part I, Line 16 - Other Expenses Description: Community outreach. Amount: 1,727. Description: Office expense. Amount: 9,145. Description: Travel, meals and entertainment. Amount: 18,367. Description: Insurance. Amount: 1,250. Description: Miscellaneous. Amount: 600. Total to Form 990-EZ, line 16: 31,089. The organization did not, during the year, receive any funds, directly,or indirectly, to pay premiums on a personal benefit contract.The organization, did not, during the year, pay any premiums, directly,or indirectly, on a personal benefit contract.