a moody scorpio rising, chatty gemini sun, and total eclipse (of the heart) sagittarius moon named Shaunga was born in Dauphin Manitoba, land of the Oceti Sakowin (Dakota, Nakota, Lakota), Anishnabe, Cree, Dene, Metis, and Great Red River Rebellion.

It wasn’t always easy growing up as a weirdo, genderqueer, Bengali, autistic, spiritually and creatively gifted kid in small town Manitoba. Back in the 70s, Dauphin was the site of a ground breaking social experiment called “Min-Come” originally designed by a group of economists who wanted to address rural poverty and provide families with a universal basic income.

While this “experiment” only lasted 4 years, it flourished. Baseline financial support for all families positively impacted social, communal and economic concerns across the board.

Approximately 45 years later, Shaunga would put her most heartfelt, revolutionary offer on the table: a vision for a village-raised artist grant ecosystem.

But everything she does today can be traced back to a promise she made her Ancestors, and a commitment she made with the land that held her as she took her first breath. That together, we are going to continue this experiment, and revolutionize every piece of it, until it’s backwards.

You can read more about “MINCOME” here at this link.

At age 21, Shaunga packs a bag to leave Manitoba and moves across turtle island to the big city, Toronto aka Tkaronto, a Mohawk Indigenous word that roughly translates to: “where the trees stand in the water.” Shaunga was called to this city through the Western Door, and she came looking for love, friends, and the hopes of finding politically aligned community to be herself and follow her dreams.

But the reality is, the promise of widespread communal financial healing she made in Rural Manitoba would never come to pass on its own.

We needed to go on a rigorous, often heart-breaking and enraging, miraculous 20 year journey with Dish With One Spoon territory. This is the Indigenous land of the Haudensaunee, Anishnabe, Wendat, Petun and Mississaugas of Credit River. This is home of Lake Ontario, Nigaani Gichi-gami, she who leads, she who goes first. She who holds all the water from the great lakes until she lets it go, back to the river, and back to the ocean.

The Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt is an agreement originally made between the Haudensaunee, the Anishnaabeg and the land itself. It extends to anyone who travels this land, requiring all of us to share its wealth, gifts and resources peacefully, including between nations and groups with conflicting interests and truths.

The Wampum Belt is a Peace Treaty that holds us accountable to sharing with each other responsibly and via principles and protocols of sincere friendship – which inevitably requires us to dismantle and unravel colonial/white supremacist understandings of ‘responsibility,’ and ‘peace’ and friendship itself, guiding us back home into their true nature.

Shaunga’s Village Artist Grant Ecosystem is first and foremost a LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT to Dish With One Spoon. To this land as my mother for the last 20 years (and counting), who held me through everything I thought I would never survive.

It is my reverence and recognition to the spirit of collaboration of all the land spirits across the world that came together to sing this offering through my voice.

This system answers questions of sincere friendship this land requires us to contend with and tend to:

how do we hold and be held?
how do we receive with as much generosity as we give?
and vice versa?
how do we know when we’ve taken enough, given enough, had enough, are enough?

what does it mean to share…during times like these, or times like anything?

Saki Savavi, a modern day wisdom keeper, earth steward and force of liberation wrote a recent substack post on “counter-cartographies of freedom: the land remembers what maps try to forget.”

You can check out Saki’s substack here: Wayfinder’s Field Notes. (As a huge nerd when it comes to decolonial mapping, this is truly an INCREDIBLE substack!)

Saki wrote something in the above post that landed so deep in my body. She wrote that being called to a part of the land isn’t a “one-sided attraction, but reciprocal pull.” That, the land “…draws those willing to hold the grief these territories carry.“

My Village Artist Grant Ecosystem is perhaps about one small, quiet thing.

Willingness.

In fact, when I released the official introduction, I gave the entire system a name: “What We Are Willing To Do For Each Other.”

This System is my willingness to hold the grief that this land carries.

When I was living in Manitoba, I had zero plans to ever come to Toronto. But when the thought crossed my mind, I considered it for maybe 5 minutes and that’s all it took to decide to pack up my entire life and move here.

Looking back, I understand now what the request really was. Someone tapped me on the shoulder very quietly and asked me: are you willing to carry my grief? I said yes, in an instant.

My Village Artist Grant Ecosystem is my willingness to hold the ache that cannot speak, the adventure that cannot be contained, the joy that cannot be lost, the mystery that cannot be explained, the medicine that must be shared, and the indestructible friendship that has changed me, for good.

Here, we re-member that Land Acknowledgement is not just a set of words, it’s a set of practices, principles, priorities, parables and promises. It’s a commitment to a way of life.

This offering is my way of saying, I will never forget you, no matter who I become. This is my way of saying, I carry you with me, even if and when I must leave.

This is my way of saying, I promise: I will not just exist, I will live. I will live this medicine out, wherever I go.

This is my way of saying, thank you.

On a quiet day in April, Earth Day (April 22) Estha and Rahel took their first breath. Two small twin black cats with a big mission, giant hearts, and named after characters in the book, “The God of Small Things.” (Written by this writer.)

Estha and Rahel were with Shaunga as she came into her queerness and multi-gendered identity, into a life as a community centered performing artist, writer, teacher and astrologer. They were her constant companions through many break-ups, traumatic experiences, major Ancestral awakening and intitiations, and while claiming her sovereignty, leadership and spiritual gifts.

Estha and Rahel passed away respectively in 2023 and 2022, after almost 15 years of life and family made together. Today, while Shaunga walks with many spiritual gifts, her power as an animal communicator is most beloved to her heart.

We have to admit, that the idea of creating the design for an ecosystem of village raised artist grants as a way to take back our power of public funding was Estha and Rahel’s idea to begin with.

As such, they remain in their position as Ancestors, Guides and Esteemed Executive Producers of this project and mission.

“This is just one small thing we can do to give back to the world, for hosting us during a small but mighty stretch of time. Please accept this gift, gratitude and wish granted, for the immeasurable miracle of our lives.”

After Estha and Rahel passed, Shaunga spent the last three years in mad spiritual scientist mode, determined to unearth the calling rumbling in her body for a village artist grant ecosystem. She spent these years sharing pieces of the vision on her podcast, youtube channel and website blog.

She did it, when she didn’t realize the extent of what she was creating, and before it had a name.

She did it, even if many people she spoke to didn’t understand WTF she was talking about.

She did it, even if it didn’t seem like “the practical” thing to do. And even when people outright told her that her work was stupid, crazy, unrealistic, unhelpful and unnecessary.

She did it thus far, without near enough collective support…but with the love and protection of some very good friends nonetheless.

Because sometimes, when Ancestors tap you on your shoulder, you have no choice but to move. You can’t let it go. You just do it.

In September 2025, Shaunga released the first official introduction to her village artist grant ecosystem in the form of a free medicine bundle in her apothecary.

In December 2025, Shaunga and her dear friend Ravyn (@ravynwngz on IG) hosted a Game Changer’s Circle, with the aim of bringing together the first round of good people well purposed and positioned to start learning the collective organizing strategy that makes sovereign village funding possible.

To pull off such an audacious ancestral heist mission as taking back our power of public funding, you don’t need much. You just need an orchestra and a conductor. A director and an awesome team. A dedicated ceremonialist and a collective altar.

You need an organizing system, a couple of good hosts, good friends, and a willing village.

the rest? is up to us-story.