Hamaatsa
HAMAATSA (Hama-at-sza), is a Keresan Pueblo word used in reference to time. It is a place arriving “now” within an indigenous experience. It is a gathering place — “a place to start over, once again”. Programs such as, Hunting Sacred,The Planting Stick,Watershed Restoration, and Adobe Making, deepen and transform our actions for living simply and locally through home-scale permaculture and sustainable living practices informed by an indigenous ecology and land wisdom. Cultural life-way programs for Native youth and families are designed for mentoring and equipping “emergent leaders” in the areas of language preservation, revitalization of storytelling and oral traditions, indigenous agriculture and medicinal plants for healthy diets and diabetes prevention. “Listening Circles” at Hamaatsa, provide community dialogues to address social and environmental justice and critical issues facing First Nations people, such as historical trauma and colonization.
LARRY LITTLEBIRD, founding director of HAMAATSA, is a Pueblo Indian from Laguna/Santo Domingo Pueblo. Larry’s coaching and mentoring style draws upon his multi-faceted background as a Native filmmaker/storyteller, education specialist, life coach, wilderness facilitator, and his personal experience as a hunter-gatherer-farmer, informed by his rich Puebloculture. He is the author of Hunting Sacred—Everything Listens: A Pueblo Indian Man’s Oral Tradition Legacy, which introduces readers to a timeless story of living in correct relationship with all life and is Littlebird’s personal oral tradition legacy.