First Peoples’ Cultural Council: Cultural Practices Grant (CPG)

Deadline: June 2, 2026

Program Summary:

Our Cultural Practices Grant (CPG) is accepting applications! The CPG supports a wide variety of community-based cultural practices and events for B.C. First Nations. Examples include events celebrating and honouring youth, seasonal or celestial activities, knowledge gathering and transfer and much more. Register for our upcoming information session to learn more about how your community can benefit.

Note: Projects funded through the Cultural Practices Grant must include a training and/or mentorship component. This supports the grant objectives of revitalizing and strengthening cultural practices and facilitating intergenerational knowledge transfer.

B.C. First Nations’ cultural practices, and the intangible heritage values they embody, are expressions of living heritage and are integral to a community’s health, wellbeing, safety and vitality. The Cultural Practices Grant (CPG) supports B.C. First Nations in planning, carrying out and documenting community-based cultural practices and events that affirm identities, foster a sense of belonging, and celebrate the roles, relationships and responsibilities within a community. This grant was made possible because of the advocacy and leadership of an Indigenous matriarch, knowledge keeper and leader in B.C. who provided recommendations for funding to support this important work in B.C. First Nation communities.

Activities and practices supported through this grant may include celebrations honouring children and youth, seasonal or celestial activities and events, knowledge gathering and transfer, reawakening of cultural places and the traditions associated with them, projects that involve repatriation, and other culturally important practices that are held by communities. These may be cultural practices that have been continuously carried out over generations, as well as “sleeping” practices that a community wants to reawaken

For more than a century, these types of cultural practices and the traditional knowledge and values they are rooted in have been disrupted by colonial policies and laws that displaced people from their lands and disconnected family and community life, impacts that are particularly hard on women and children. The reawakening of these traditions is one way that B.C. First Nations are taking action against the gender-based violence that disproportionately affects Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people.

Please review these guidelines carefully before starting your application. Applications are submitted on the First Peoples’ Cultural Council’s (FPCC) Grant Portal: https://fpcc.smartsimple.ca.

The Cultural Practices Grant is funded by the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation through a Canada-British Columbia bilateral agreement as part of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Support for the Cultural Practices Grant furthers the ongoing work under Safe and Supported: B.C.’s Gender Based Violence Action Plan.

Grant Objectives

The objectives of the CPG are to:

1.  Support revitalizing, recognizing and strengthening of cultural practices.
2.  Support and facilitate intergenerational knowledge transfer.
3.  Support activities and practices that affirm identities, foster a sense of belonging, and celebrate roles and relationships within a community.
4. Support cultural practices that promote collective safety and wellbeing within and for B.C. First Nations. This includes physical safety within communities and on the land, as well as the cultural and spiritual safety of those participating in project activities.
5. Support First Nations cultural practices as a way to prevent and heal from gender-based violence.

Eligible Projects

Activities and events supported through this grant reflect shared cultural values within a community and Nation. Support from the community/cultural group and guidance and leadership from Elders and cultural advisors with recognized roles within the community will be essential to ensuring projects are carried out in a safe, respectful and proper way. Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects have support from the wider community, and that the people leading project activities hold existing community-recognized roles that align with the proposed activity.

Examples of eligible activities include, but are not limited to:

• Community-led naming events and baby welcoming events
• Events and practices that honour people with important roles within the community (Elders, hunters, fishers, spiritual leaders, political leaders, language speakers, etc.)
• Gatherings and events focusing on modeling safe, healthy relationships and preparing children and youth for the future
• Welcoming and reconnecting programs for adults who did not have the opportunity to participate yet
• The development of kinship programs to welcome or prepare new or returning community members
• Welcoming and reconnecting programs supporting off-reserve and/or urban Indigenous youth to travel to B.C. First Nation communities
• Celebrations for pole raisings, house panel installations and other similar events*
• Cultural performances that signify rites of passage (e.g., dance, song, storytelling)
• Traditional harvesting celebrations or events**
• The creation, restoration, or reactivation of cultural Belongings important to cultural practices. This could include regalia, blankets, masks, drums, ochre and other belongings, and could also include repatriated Belongings.
• Working with Elders, knowledge holders and/or cultural advisors to record oral histories, protocols, laws, and stories about cultural practices and events
• Developing teaching tools around cultural practices for use by and for B.C. First Nations youth programs, communities and First Nations schools
• Storytelling projects to document cultural practices.
• Projects that support cultural survival practices, such as cultural practices around food sovereignty.

If you are interested in undertaking an activity not on this list of examples, please reach out to us at cpg@fpcc.ca and we can discuss how your project could fit into the grant program’s areas of focus.

Training and Mentorship

Projects funded through this grant must include a training and/or mentorship component. This supports the grant objectives of revitalizing and strengthening of cultural practices and facilitating intergenerational knowledge transfer. Teachers and mentors must be recognized within the community as the appropriate people to train and mentor others in project activities. Likewise, the people receiving training and mentorship must also have the support of the community to receive this training.

Please note, mentorship/apprenticeship involves long-term learning opportunities that span the duration of the project.

Collaboration is Encouraged

FPCC strongly encourages collaboration. Only one application (per grant program) per Band Office, Tribal Council or Society/Organization will be eligible for funding. If multiple CPG applications from the same Band Office, Tribal Council or Society are submitted, no more than one application may move forward for review by the Peer Review Committee, so it is strongly advised that applicants collaborate and submit one unified proposal. This demonstrates that there is support and consensus for the proposed project, as well as being inclusive and designed with long-term goals in mind.

Grant Amount:

Applicants can apply for between $10,000 and $25,000 for projects under the CPG. There are no expectations or requirements for cost-sharing, however, if your project is dependent on other funding sources, we require proof of confirmed funding. Any project costs that exceed the grant amount will be the responsibility of the applicant.

Eligible Applicants:

FPCC’s Heritage Program supports projects by the 204 B.C. First Nations communities and B.C.-based First Nations-led organizations whose mandate or focus includes the revitalization of First Nations heritage. FPCC requires at least 65% of an organization’s board members/directors to include individuals from B.C. First Nations as they are the rightful stewards of their cultural heritage and are best equipped to lead the important work of protecting, sharing and revitalizing B.C. First Nations Heritage on their lands. Applicant organizations must have a mandate that includes B.C. First Nations’ heritage.

Eligible applicants include the following:

• Recognized B.C. First Nations bands or Tribal Councils*1
• Not-for-profit societies registered in B.C. in good standing and governed by B.C. First Nations individuals where at least 65% of directors are from recognized B.C. First Nations
• B.C. First Nations-led museums and cultural spaces where at least 65% of directors are from recognized B.C. First Nations
• Urban and off-reserve B.C. First Nations organizations where at least 65% of directors are from recognized B.C. First Nations
• B.C. First Nations schools or adult education centres operating in B.C. on First Nations lands.*2 Please note that applications from First Nations schools that serve one community must be submitted through their respective Nation or Band Office.
• Projects funded through this grant must include a training and/or mentorship component.

If you have any questions about your eligibility, please contact cpg@fpcc.ca.