HAMAATSA IS ROOTED in time, story and ancestry, bringing back the sacred through indigenous wisdom and regenerative living models. Over the past thirty years, our programs have been led by Native American elders who generously shared their wise teachings and generational legacies. This Ancestor Voice and its sustenance planted in good ground provides a harvest feast for the next generation of storyworkers. Cultivating the sacred, we collaborate with a dedicated cadre of story-listeners and story-tellers, song makers and artists, farmer-herbalist activists and cultural custodians to gather, create and thrive.
LISTENING GROUND
Listening Ground is the continuum of our founder, Larry Littlebird’s life long work to perpetuate tribal American oral tradition culture.
Story Listeners are the lifeblood of an oral tradition.
If there were no listeners then the stories would end.
~ Larry Littlebird, Laguna/Kewa Pueblos
Listening Ground perpetuates the orality of tribal American people for future generations by bridging the ancient technology of Native American oral tradition cultures with today's multi-media technologies and contemporary creative expressions including poetry, lyric, multi-media art, painting, film and music.
We collaborate with a dedicated cadre of story-listeners and story-tellers, song makers, artists and cultural custodians to gather in a nurturing sacred space for true listening. This series offers real time, in-person listening circles where we foster a collaborative story listening community. We nurture artistic creativity and reciprocity as we reverently carry the stories and wisdom of our elders forward.
FOUR SEASONS OF LISTENING CIRCLES:
Spring ~ THE LOST CHORD: The sound of the drum has ancient resonance and brings us back to that time when we were at one with the Mother’s heartbeat. A listening circle with Pueblo singers and a drum making presentation with stories and a call and response within the circle.
SUMMER ~ FIRE, AIR, WATER, EARTH: The Elders tell us this great story of cosmogenesis is how time and space were set in the beginning and that the elements of fire, air, water and earth have pure and clear identities. This is an experiential creative journey in kinship to the elements and spirit of place. Tribal people have learned from this story for countless continuous generations. Participate in a story that realigns with this old order for bringing about correct action in our personal lives and communities. Call and response within the listening circle.
AUTUMN ~ CULTIVATING THE SACRED: Mah-shra We’du’nhi’me – growing toward the Light: The plant emerges from a silent seed, rising toward the light on a spiraling journey. This experiential includes a seed savers exchange of local indigenous seeds, listening to the Seed Basket Story (a traditional Pueblo story) and making seed pots with clay.
WINTER ~ HAMA-HA: The storyteller begins, Hama-Ha, the listeners respond, Eh, ehh! A long time ago, all people were connected through the spoken word. All people everywhere belonged to an oral tradition. Hama-Ha in Pueblo Keresan language means, a first dawn in the east, a time when all was one in the heart of the Creator. Hama-Ha is a significant Keresan Pueblo storytelling experience in the tribal American oral tradition. In the natural order of life, we would gather around the winter fire to listen – listen with our whole being to ancient stories which would connect us with that first dawn. Learning to listen is about knowledge. Learn the practice of story-listening while Native elders and storytellers share their traditional stories. This long winter night experiential features Panchati, a Pueblo Indian winter social dance with traditional foods, drum and songs.
Coyote Gathers His People
Learning to Listen and the Listening Circle
The circle represents the community. The circle is in constant motion, it is never static, the movement reciprocating, more than a circle it is a spiraling motion. What holds it all together? What makes it work? A central common focus, a common action of purpose – Listening. Listening then becomes common belief transformed from word into action. All beings are learning to listen. None are perfect in their ability to listen. If we were, the circle would be perfectly round. Learning to listen is a process of working together to discover the knowledge of living contained in the stories and in acted in joyous harmonious relationship to one another. ~ Larry Littlebird, Laguna/Kewa Pueblos
SLOW STORY - Online Curriculum coming Fall 2025!
Slow Story with Larry Littlebird, regenerates the ancient circle of the consecrated storyteller and the story listener. Join Pueblo Indian Elder/Master Storyteller, Larry Littlebird as he takes us on a story journey through time and place on his ancestral lands in New Mexico. This story series offers a rare opportunity to have access to a rich depository from Littlebird's Pueblo Indian oral tradition with guided applications for exploring one's own story listening journey.
Plant walks and wildcrafting medicinal herbs with guest herbalists and Elders. Grow a relationship with the land where you live and get to know the land right beneath your feet. Deborah Littlebird leads seasonal herbal experientials for creating your own backyard medicinal food garden and kitchen cupboard apothecary. Includes an experiential tea circle with stories about indigenous plant medicine, a tea Haiku poetry session and plant mandala-art making within the listening circle.
Hamaatsa is the Fiscal Sponsor for Kukani, a new dynamic storytelling space in Albuquerque where the distinctive cultures and histories of New Mexico come alive through art and community programs.
Around our small lodge fires the great stories are still being told. Their good healing power moving across the land. It is through the generosity of our donors and sustainers that we are able to sustain and nurture our programs. Contributions of any size are much appreciated!