Hamaatsa

HAMAATSA is an indigenous continuum learning center and demonstration site committed to regenerative and sustainable living, spiritual wholeness and cultural restoration. A Native led 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, their mission is to promote emergent leadership models for living simply and sustainably on the land; to integrate healing systems from traditional cultures; and to restore indigenous life-ways and land stewardship principles through experiential land-based learning.

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.