The Entheon Foundation recognizes the IRI’s transformative efforts and ethical impact
The Entheon Foundation is the latest organization to honor Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines with a grant of $25,000. The foundation specifically recognizes the vital role of the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas (IRI), the Chacruna program that supports community-led, grassroots projects designed and implemented by local people to address their own self-determined needs. The grant will support Chacruna as it works to empower, resource, and strengthen IRI’s Indigenous partner organizations in the Americas.
“The Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative represents the transformative work we need to see in this field,” shares Laurens de Groot, the Entheon Foundation’s Strategic Partnerships Lead. “While psychedelic research and psychedelic-assisted therapies accelerate globally, we have a profound responsibility to honor and support the Indigenous communities who have been the guardians of these healing traditions for millennia. The IRI doesn’t just talk about reciprocity; it creates concrete pathways for researchers, practitioners, and organizations to give back meaningfully. Supporting the IRI is supporting the ethical foundation that the entire field must be built upon.”
That ethical foundation is critical to the psychedelic movement at a time when ancestral Indigenous knowledge is being ignored, lost, or erased, and when extractive practices mean the communities that have long stewarded psychedelic plants and fungi are left with nothing as companies profit.
“Since its inception, the IRI program has focused on strengthening Indigenous biocultures by providing funding and logistical support to grassroots organizations committed to the protection, defense, care and preservation of their ancestral knowledge.”
Dr. Osiris García Cerqueda
“Since its inception, the IRI program has focused on strengthening Indigenous biocultures by providing funding and logistical support to grassroots organizations committed to the protection, defense, care and preservation of their ancestral knowledge,” says IRI Program Coordinator Dr. Osiris García Cerqueda. “We know that neocolonialist practices have impacted their communities. In that sense, at IRI we are committed to selflessly strengthen the elements that constitute their identity and give meaning to their lives. We are deeply grateful for the donations from individuals and organizations from the Global North that allow us to support the efforts of our partner organizations throughout the Americas.”
Chacruna’s work with IRI has a profound impact on the Indigenous communities where the partner organizations are based, “so it is only right and proper that part of the profits from the psychedelic market go to support the well-being of Indigenous communities,” says Cerqueda. The work also weaves ethics into conversations within the psychedelic movement supporting the development of equitable frameworks and processes towards Indigenous peoples.
“The field of psychedelics is rapidly expanding, and ethics, reciprocity, justice, and protection are more crucial than ever,” says Chacruna Executive Director Dr. Bia Labate. “We face the real risk that these critically important healing tools are steamrolled during the race for profits and quick fixes. It is imperative that Chacruna has the resources to scale up its proven and impactful activities as a standard-bearer for integrity in the psychedelic space.”
In 2024 alone, IRI supported 15 grassroots organizations across seven countries. Chacruna relies on funding from grants and donations to continue its work to create a more just and aware psychedelic future. Every donation matters, and funds directly support efforts to center Indigenous voices, foster cross-cultural dialogue, and shift paradigms in the field. Contribute today to support this essential mission.
Read IRI’s 2024 Impact Report here.
About Chacruna Institute
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing psychedelic justice through education, advocacy, and research. We promote reciprocity, cultural preservation, and ethics by bridging traditional Indigenous knowledge and modern psychedelic science.
Media Contact
Lorien Chavez
Chacruna Institute
lorien@chacruna.net
415-390-6157
Art by Michelle Velasco.
