2022-2023 Grants
The Estonian Cultural Foundation Australia (ECFA) has announced $22,840 in funding for the coming year. Applications were received from groups in Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne.
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount ($) |
| Adelaide Eesti Selts – Estonian Dance Group “Vikerkaar” | Lockable Storage Cupboards The traditional costumes were either sourced directly from Estonia or have been produced by local seamstresses. The storage is required for both security and preserving the garments in mint condition. | 1,140 |
| Hans Ots Annual Grant | Support for young people to attend Sõrve The Hans Ots Award is awarded to Sõrve for the purpose of supporting young people (and their families) from interstate to attend the camp. | 4,000 |
| Sõrve | General Camp Funding Sõrve has been running for over 60 years, and provides a rich cultural experience for many young and adult Estonians, using language, dancing, singing, etc. ECFA will help support the running costs of next year’s camp (1 – 8 January 2023) | 6,000 |
| Ceridwen Dovey & Rowena Potts, co-creators | Short Film Production These independent film-makers Ceridwen Dovey and Rowena Pitt are making a short film ‘Musca’ about the constellations of the southern hemisphere night skies, inspired by the Estonian composer Urmas Sisask’s “Southern Sky” masterpiece. | 1,500 |
| Estonian Archives in Australia | Postage of Books to Estonia A grant has been awarded for postage of books surplus to the requirements of the archive to interested record repositories in Estonia. | 2,000 |
| Estonian Children’s Playgroup in Sydney | Weekly Children’s Playgroup This Sydney Estonian Children’s group meets weekly and promotes Estonian language, music and culture among Estonian families and strengthens the Estonian community in Sydney. | 3,000 |
| Estonians in Newcastle | General Support Support for Estonian kids who live outside of Sydney to get acquainted with Estonian language and culture through songs and dances. | 1,000 |
| The Geelong Writer’s Group | Publishing Costs The Geelong Writers group is looking to publish prose & poetry from local writers, members of the Baltic & Ukrainian communities et al. Azuria #10 ‘In Peace & in War’ | 500 |
| Kino!! (Estonian Society of Sydney Inc.) | DVD Lending Library The project aims to create a substantive and accessible DVD library of Estonian contemporary and classic films with English subtitles. | 700 |
| The Oaks Historical Society Inc, Wollondilly Heritage Centre & Museum | Kungla Sign Restoration Thirlmere was a significant and large Estonian village throughout the 20th century. Kungla was the main grocery store in the village centre. ECFA will contribute towards the cost of the restoration of this sign, which (we have been told) is heritage listed. | TBC |
| Melbourne Eesti Maja Co-op | The project aims to digitise all the Melbourne Estonian House Co-op records so that we reduce the amount of paperwork stored, as well as having one location for all Estonian House Co-op Ltd records for easier access online. | 3,000 |
| 22,840 |
In addition to these grants, the ECFA has provided a loan of $10,000 to the Melbourne Estonian House Co-op to support legal work on scoping future options for Melbourne Estonian House.
2021-2022 Grants
The Estonian Cultural Foundation Australia (ECFA) has announced $17,550 in funding for the coming year. Applications were received from groups in Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne.
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount ($) |
| Adelaide Eesti Selts – Estonian Choir “Hapu Koor” | New Traditional Choir Shirts Hapu Koor plans to make new traditional choir shirts produced by local Estonian seamstresses with traditional woven belts (produced by the weaver’s group) enhancing their uniform. | 2,000 |
| Hans Ots Annual Grant | Support for young people to attend Sõrve The Hans Ots Annual Grant enables the offer of financial assistance. This applies to helping all kids in Australia, with particular attention to children from interstate and country NSW, who have a keen interest in Estonian culture and participating in the Sõrve Summer Camp. | 4,000 |
| Sõrve | General Camp Funding This camp brings together children and their families for a week of activities which enhance their experiences with Estonian culture. Children are taught Estonian language, songs, dancing, and other aspects of Estonian culture. The camp helps form lifetime friendships, and helps people with Estonian heritage to connect with others of similar backgrounds. In recent years we have seen this lead to greater participation in Estonian folk-dancing and the choirs. | 6,000 |
| EESTI PÄEVAD – MELBOURNE, EASTER 2022 | Festival Program The Foundation has decided to sponsor the Festival with $2,000 towards the Festival program, which will be a collector’s item; and $3,000 to be the sponsor of the Kilmore event. | 5,000 |
| Virmalised | Restoration or replacement of well-worn pieces, specifically national costume blouses/shirts. They require ~27 m of cotton linen fabric to replace 12 blouses/shirts, which will be made at workshops together with the Sydney Estonian Society’s Handicraft Association. | 550 |
| 17,550 |
2020-2021 Grants
The ECFA Board is pleased to announce the following funding awards to promote Estonian culture in Australia. A total of $20,250 was awarded.
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount ($) |
| Sõrve | Sõrve has applied for funding which will directly assist their National Estonian Summer Camp. Strengthening the bonds within the Australian-Estonian community will be achieved through camp activities including: – Australian-Estonian language teachers involved in the kindergarten groups around Australia – Music including singing to show an insight to the Estonian Song Festivals – Dancing to showcase and promote participation in the Estonian Dance groups in Australia – Participation in creation of traditional Estonian Art and Craft. | 7,500 |
| Hans Ots Annual Grant | Support for young people to attend Sõrve The Hans Ots Annual Grant enables the offer of financial assistance. This applies to helping all kids in Australia, with particular attention to children from interstate and country NSW, who have a keen interest in Estonian culture and participating in the Sõrve Summer Camp. | 4,000 |
| Sydney Estonian Handicraft Association | Estonian Folk Costume Preservation Project: A Digital Archive of Estonian Folk Costumes in Australia The Sydney Estonian Handicraft Association would like to develop a digital archive to display the Estonian folk costumes that have been worn by people with Estonian heritage in Australia. | 1,750 |
| Estonian Archives in Australia | Digitisation and conversion to a text document of the manuscript of “The Mahatma of the Baltics” by Friedrich Lustig The manuscript is entitled “The Mahatma of the Baltics. The memorable life of the Most Rev. Karlis A. M. Tennisons, the Buddist Archbishop of Latvia.” By The Most Rev. Friedrich Lustig. | 1,000 |
| Sydney Estonian House Co-operative Society Ltd | Development Application for the Renovation of Sydney Estonian House The Sydney Estonian House Co-op applied for funding from the ECFA to assist in the cost of preparation and lodgement of these DA plans with SCC. | 5,000 |
| Virmalised | Pastlad for Virmalised Virmalised would like to purchase pastlad for the Virmalised dance group, which can be lent out to members for performances. | 1,000 |
| 20,250 |
2019-2020 Awards
Funding for cultural activities announced during this month. A total of $17,682 was granted to several organisations, a summary of which is tabled below:
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount ($) |
| Sõrve Camp | General purposes, with the stipulation that $4,000 be aimed towards supporting families with special needs or who are experiencing difficulties, in particular towards fostering links across states. | 10,000 |
| Lõke Musical Ensemble | To cover the costs of a portable sound system | 3,632 |
| Aksel Haagensen | Part allocation towards the production of documentary film regarding Estonian refugees in Australia. This was considered to be a worthwhile project in the light of the mass deportation ceremony held during the previous month. Whilst the final documentary film would be housed in Estonia, it could be used around the world. ECFA stipulated that a copy be deposited with the Estonian-Australian Archives | 1,500 |
| Sydney Mudilasring | Cover the costs of teaching staff | 2,550 |
| 17,682 |