UMARNA
03 · Foundation Stewardship, not ownership

Foundation

How UMARNA is held, governed, and kept independent.

Four bodies

Distinct authority, deliberately separated.

The foundation is built so no single body can capture the whole. Four bodies hold different kinds of authority, and each checks the others.

A lion in profile emerging from a mineral mass, guardian at the head of the structure
Legal authority · guardian

The Stewardship Circle

Carries the founding mandate, continuity, relational protocols and long-term direction, with final legal responsibility.

Vision and law in one body
Five identical carved profiles in a row, all facing the same direction
Ethical authority

The Ethics Committee

Holds independent authority over consent, cultural sensitivity, and the careful handling of heritage.

First circle
Five carved busts in profile, ranked one behind another and receding into shadow
Intellectual authority

The Interdisciplinary Council

Holds the research: what meets the standard, what enters the Core.

Second circle
A carved figure overlaid with technical schematics and data panels drawn from outside it
External network

The Advisory Board

External advisers who guide without governing.

Third circle

Stewardship of knowledge

Held in trust, on clear terms.

Independence

Research is funded, never commissioned. Support carries no claim over what is studied, what is found, or what is said. The findings answer to the evidence, not to the funder. Funding builds research capacity and public knowledge: new research, fellowships, fieldwork, the preservation of cultural and archaeological records, and the convening of specialists. It is never directed toward a predetermined conclusion.

Consent framework

Knowledge that originates with a living community is used only with that community's consent, following UNDRIP and the Nagoya Protocol. The community's purpose prevails, benefit-sharing is built in, and consent can be withdrawn.

Transparency

UMARNA publishes its governing documents, board composition, remuneration policy and annual activity reporting as the foundation develops, and maintains that disclosure as routine practice thereafter.

The founding phase

What is being built now.

UMARNA is establishing its institutional and research architecture in the Netherlands: building the research corpus, developing methodological protocols, establishing collaborations, preparing field research, developing the Earth Resonance Map, and structuring the fellowships and roundtables through which future initiatives will operate.