Malki Museum Inc.

This project will enable Malki Museum Inc. to increase their capacity to continue preserving and advancing traditional Native arts through their programming focused on supporting artists and intergenerational sharing of artistic skills and knowledge, as well as, increase their organizational sustainability.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The Cahuilla Language and Archival Collection Preservation Project aims to further the goals of the current archival project and language preservation initiatives at Malki Museum. Over the last 5 years we have aimed to focus on furthering the Cahuilla Language learning and programs that are taking place hosted at Malki Museum. This has come in the way of teachers taking various language classes to improve their knowledge of the Cahuilla Language. We have also been able to focus on hosting smaller numbers of enrollment classes over the 2022-2023 years to serve the Morongo Band of Mission Indians tribal members and their families. This funding will assist in the research and purchase of a transcription program. It will also assist in the hiring of a contracted employee to input and develop the transcription program to our needs. We would like to begin transcribing into readable text several historical recordings that we have in our collection at Malki Museum. We would also like to purchase an additional a manual projector to assist in future Cahuilla language classes. The second goal within this project is the further development of our Archive and Collection Capacity Building initiative that we have been working on during 2020-2023 as part of a 5 year plan developed with our Executive Board Members and staff. With previous funding from First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) we were able to hire two consultants to help plan for a new archive and library facility at Malki Museum. This information has been developed into a report of findings that detail: the layout, budget, professional contacts, and fundraising ideas for the project. This report was completed between July 6, 2023 and August 8, 2023. It is currently under review by our Executive Board Members and staff. The hiring of an archival professional through this round of grant funding from FNDI will assist in preparing our collection for moving into a new building when the building project is completed (projected to be completed in 2025-2026). The contracted employee will work to clean, organize, label, and rehouse the collection of artifacts, photographs, documents, and books that are housed at the museum. With these tasks completed the collection will not only be up to date in its storage systems but will also be ready for temporary housing and for movement into the new archival facility.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) We are seeking to fund the ‘Malki Museum Capacity Building Project’ that will take place during the grant period of April 2023 to April 2024. The term capacity is used to define the need for larger crowd accommodations, as well as the development of research and promotional information for our upcoming capital building project. With Covid-19 restrictions easing in our area we have been able to open our in-person events and have seen a spike in attendance to all of our events during the 2021 year. It was a welcomed development that we were not prepared for. Another upcoming development will be special invitations sent to tribal family engagement groups and elders groups in order to help boost our attendance and reach within the community. We are seeking funds to help support our in-person event seating accommodations by purchasing another set of bleachers to allow for more visitors to enjoy the programming taking place during the day. Malki Museum is also seeking funds to hire two consultants. Both will be assisting to create content and research that will be used in the creation for our new capital building project Malki Museum Library and Archive. One consultant will be tasked to do research into the specific building type and company we will use to purchase a pre-fabricated building that will house an office, research room, and hold all of Malki Museum’s collection of books, artifacts, and images. They will also be tasked with getting mock ups of the building and researching the additional costs associated with the building project so that we will have an overall budget number to use for fundraising purposes. The second consultant will be hired to create a promotional video that will show Malki’s supporters of our upcoming project and give information about how they can support the project.

Training the museum’s board and staff on basketry and cultural items preservation.

The ultimate purpose of our project is to create continued awareness of appropriate Covid-19 precautions to lessen the spread of the virus to the tribal community at Morongo and the public now that the museum will be open once again.