Fearless Foundation

Reflections from @women_deliver #WD2026 📃 In Melbourne, Australia, Fearless Foundation for the Arts brought to a global audience three of its workshops led by its team members and ambassadors from the global majority 🌹 Through *Tongues*, @queerislit , our lead Storyteller, brought tomes of desire from South Asia, decolonising the way we approach and talk about sexuality and pleasure. Participants read poems from Pakistan and India alongside works by Indigenous women across the Pacific and queer and trans authors, before finally writing a verse of their own onto red silken banners to carry home as heirlooms of imagined futures. Through *Border Softer*, @azeema.nur , Fearless Ambassador from Uzbekistan, brought traces of her homeland and took the participants through a spiritual journey of remembrance and resistance. Using hair as a repository of embodied histories from South Asia, participants braided strands one after the other, recounting the pain they have been carrying and moving through a process of collective healing. Through *At the Root*, @sara.koinch , Fearless Ambassador from Nepal, explored our relationships with land and ecology. In a storytelling session, participants reflected on climate change in their countries, and their connections to the land, citing indigenous histories, caste, disability, and more. These reflections were transformed into affirmative climate posters using natural pigments, symbolising a way to return to the land, collective stewardship, and regenerative futures 🍃 #WD2026 #Fearless #Art

💧 A well painted into our mural, helped bring to life a forgotten source of water in the desert. The revival of Maniyara beri will serve as a pilot for the revival of 4 more beris in the Sanwata village, Jaisalmer. Renewing neglected, ancient wells or beris, makes the villagers in the region resilient and self-sufficient in the face of ever-worsening heat waves in the years to come. Project funded by @aranyanilife and in partnership with, the village of Sanwata, @sumer_singh_bhati_sanwata , @parthjaganijaisalmer and @theilovefoundation_ 🎥: @paraffinfilms Learn more about our work from link in bio 🔗 #fearless #oranbachao #desert #ecology

Through the patronage of @aranyanilife , Fearless raised USD 13,800 to revive the Maniyara beri (मनियारा बेरी), an ancient well in Sanwata village, Degrai Oran, which is one of the largest sacred groves of Rajasthan. The village sarpanch (headman) and villagers partnered with @sumer_singh_bhati_sanwata , @parthjaganijaisalmer and @theilovefoundation_ in this revival, which ensured they had ownership of the beri and its maintenance. #Fearless #Sacredgroves #Abundance #Desertecology #oranbachao

☀️ Currently, as summer temperatures hit record highs and heat waves sweep across large parts of India, we remember our time with @sumer_singh_bhati_sanwata in Jaisalmer. Born in Sanwata, one of the twelve villages around Deg Rai Mata Oran, he is a leading environmentalist and community organiser in the Oran Bachao Movement. Sumer Singh says, ‘Oran sab hi ka hai, bas yeh dekhna hai ki kaun aage aayega’, the oran belongs to us all, it’s just a matter of who steps forward to protect it. He has been working tirelessly to protect the Orans that are being officially deemed as ‘wastelands’. Making it easier to dispossess local communities for the creation of solar and wind farms, destroying delicate ecosystems that make the land naturally resilient to the changing climate. 🔗 Read more about Sumer Singh’s work and Oran Bachao movement in our reading list in bio. Project in partnership with @theilovefoundation_ 📹 @paraffinfilms #Fearless #Sacredgroves #Abundance #Desertecology #Oranbachao

We went to Jaisalmer during the most testing time of their year: the anticipation for rain makes the air heavy, and we quickly realized that even the walls were thirsty. We learned from Chattar Singh ji, a farmer, archive of wisdom on desert ecologies and pioneer in water management systems that in this land, every being, every entity, human or not – is alive. Every seed has a kul, a lineage, and every cloud a name despite seeing fewer than 40 days of rain a year. That no auspicious task on this land can begin without the blessing of the sugan chidiya, the auspicious bird. We painted this mural of abundance, into walls that have stood for centuries as the granary of the Jaisalmer Fort. For infinitely longer, the khejri has protected this land and her people. It stands in the centre of our mural affirming: Main iss dharti ki chaya hoon. I am the shelter of this land. 🔗 Watch our film, Dharti - link in bio, to see how this process came to life. Project in partnership with @theilovefoundation_ #Fearless #Sacredgroves #Abundance #Desertecology

When the women of Sanwata joined us, they showed us how to create mandana, as taught to them by their mothers, and their grandmothers. Mandana paintings using earth, lime, white clay and dung not only cool down houses in the pulsing heat of the desert but are also ritual practice to protect home and hearth ⛅️ Women very often bear the heaviest brunt of their changing landscapes, in walking further to collect water, in eating less to feed the bellies of their children and in fighting patriarchal systems. This mural highlights the knowledge systems, labour, resilience of the generations of women from the Oran Bachao Movement. Project in partnership with @theilovefoundation_ 📸 by @gayatriganju #OranBachao #Fearless #Sacredgroves #Abundance #Ecology

Desert communities in the Thar draw rings around the periphery of orans, with kesar (saffron) and doodh (milk) to mark them as sacred. This ties them to the oran in unspoken promise: no one hacks a single branch from the native trees, or tills a square inch of oran land. As these communities become increasingly vulnerable to the climate crisis, we spoke to women from Samwata village, to understand how the land shelters them from luu (heatwaves) and akal (famine). This group of intergenerational women form a part of the Oran Bachao Movement, which is fighting to preserve this delicate eco-system from large-scale ‘development’ projects. Project in partnership with @theilovefoundation_ Read more about the Oran Bachao movement from our reading list in the bio. Photo credits: @fabricebourgelle and @gayatriganju #OranBachao #Fearless #Sacredgroves #Abundance #Desertecology

🌴 Sitting under the shade of a 400 year old Khejri tree in the Thar desert in Rajasthan, we listened to women from Samwata village, tell us about the abundance the desert holds. They shared stories and songs about the Orans (sacred groves) around us, of rainclouds and oracular birds, that we painted into a panoramic mural in the over 850 years old Jaisalmer Fort. 🌍 To commemorate this #EarthDay, we are releasing our film “Dharti”, produced about this project. In the coming days, we will be sharing more about our work here. Looking to and honouring the deep wisdom and lived experience of people that continue to protect the land they live on 🙏 🔗 Link in bio. Project in partnership with @theilovefoundation_ 🎥 by @fabricebourgelle Film edited by @hogafilms_india #EarthDay2026 #OranBachao #Fearless #Abundance

We are coming to @women_deliver 2026 with three workshops: *At the Root* will be facilitated by Sara Tunich Koinch, an indigenous artist and a senior Fearless Ambassador from Kathmandu, Nepal. She has led several exhibitions including Young Artist Show by Mcube Gallery, Himalayan Art Exhibition, and has painted one of Nepal’s biggest murals to climate justice with local indigenous women who safeguard and heal this sacred land. *Border Softer* will be facilitated by Feruza Abdullaeva, better known as Azeema Nur, a visual artist and a senior Fearless Ambassador from Bukhara, Uzbekistan. She is a disciple of the only remaining keeper of the lost mystic Sufi art form known as Abru Bahor, native to her ancient hometown Bukhara — her source of power and inspiration. Most recently, she has brought to life one of New Delhi’s largest climate justice murals. *Tongues* will be facilitated by Neelu, who leads storytelling at Fearless Foundation for the Arts. She is a cultural narrator and performing artist with an interest in embodied practices and poetics. Neelu has convened several transnational conversations at the intersection of culture and social justice, and has written widely on gender and sexuality, especially foregrounding her lived realities as a transwoman in the global majority. If you’ll be at Women Deliver, please connect with us!

📌 Fearless Foundation for the Arts is organizing three workshops at #WomenDeliver2026 bringing together perspectives on art and culture from South Asia. We will be convening at the Arts Hub from 28 to 30 April 2026 to bring you poetry, performance art, and poster making as we discuss pleasure and desire, histories and solidarities across borders, and art and ecology 🍃 There are no prerequisites and we only ask you to attend with an open heart and a curious mind and co-create beauty with us 🌹 If you’ll be at Women Deliver 2026, please register and connect with us! #WD2026 #fearless

In our 13 years of being, we have painted close to 100 murals. Each mural transforms a space into a portal toward the safe and sacred futures we want to exist in. After creating many temporary and ephemeral visions of fearless futures around the world, we began to feel the need to build a home. We recognised the importance of physical spaces in organising and movement building—places where musicians, poets, writers, and painters can gather, exchange ideas, and imagine the futures they want to build together. It is said that Faiz and Darwish once wrote poetry together in a small red bar in Beirut. That space became the foundation for conversations, poetry, and the solidarity that grew between their movements. Inspired by that spirit, we chose Colombo as the first home for Fearless. The space is imagined as a three-story house of creative resistance: • A living archive of art and liberation movements. • An open studio where artists can co-work, create, rehearse, host screenings, and gather in community. • And finally, a sanctuary and artist residency, where political artists can step away from the pressures of the world to develop their ideas and deepen their practice. Brought to life in close collaboration with our dear Ambassadors @minalnaomi and @vickyshahjehan . The first Fearless Space, in Colombo, was launched on the 14th of February with our Sri Lanka chapter, friends and family in attendance. We will be lining up some very exciting programming for this space soon!

Fearless is hiring We are looking for a Fundraiser Lead to spearhead resource mobilization and sustain our 3-year vision. With 5–8+ years of experience, you will build long-term donor relationships and lead diversified funding pipelines and secure international grants & partnerships across South Asia. If you can translate movement vision into actionable funding plans, help us build a sustainable future for the Fearless Foundation. Location - Hybrid. Anywhere in South Asia Deadline - 15 March 2026 Email your CV + expression of interest to [email protected] [Hiring, Vacancy, FundraiserLead, FearlessFoundation, CreativeJobs, SocialJusticeJob, SocialJusticeCareers]