Hopi Holiday Project Underway
We welcome your support for Hopi families as we begin our 17th annual Hopi Holiday Project.
We invite gifts for kids and elders, monetary contributions:
- Kids: Learning aides, workbooks, flashcards, art supplies and sports equipment, coats, sweatsuits are needed for pre-school through high school youth.
- Bagged toiletry sets for elders (e.g., shampoo, creme rinse, toothpaste/brush, soap, hair and nail grooming items, dental floss, towel, wash cloth).
- Cash donations will support youth supplies and purchase of food for families.
Donation Tables/Collection barrel in Sedona:
Saturdays, December 10 & 17:
Jay’s Bird Barn (Safeway Center), noon to 4 pm
Tlaquepaque, Patio de las Campanas, 3 – 6 pm
Collection Barrel from Thanksgiving through December:
Great Southwest Gallery, Tlaquepaque A207, Patio de las Campanas (near El Rincon)
Local Help Needed
We need local volunteers:
–at donation tables
–to load of gifts at each of the 4 tables and deliver to packing site
–help sorting, packing
We may need delivery help depending on how many gift donations we receive.
Out of town shoppers can ship directly to our Hopi delivery team or individual families.
If you want to support one or more specific families with a care package one or more times this winter, please let me know.
For more information, contact Sandra: info@crossingworlds.org or 928-282-0846
Project posters can be mailed or emailed to you to share with others.
You can download PDF here or I will email it to you on request.
Thank you for your interest in and support for Hopi people!
Youth Learning Center at 2nd Mesa
We are undertaking a major project for this year: raise funding to build a youth learning center-workshop at 2nd Mesa to be managed by Natwanhoym Tunatya, which is led by Augustine and Tim Mowa along with youth from ages 6 to 18. The youth group will contribute labor. Hopi builders will work at a discounted rate. I will soon have an estimate of cost of materials so we can establish our fundraising goal.
This active learning center will be available for all villages working together to train the youth in Hopi arts, language, farming, vocational skills, Hopi wisdom, and learn about their ancestral sites in the region. The Learning Center will have computer access for education and selling their art. This will be a place where elders can come and teach the youth. Equipment and training will be available for the youth to make Hopi art as part of their livelihood training.
We are moving more and more each year to focus on projects that will have lasting support for future sustainability. We welcome your support.
I will send you a project poster link to share in the next newsletter.
Hopi Guardian/Protector
Hopi Qalehtaka (Guardian/Protector) painting by Hopi artist and Army veteran Filmer Kewanyama (shared with permission).”
Filmer says: “In the Hopi way it has been the responsibility of the Qalehtakas to protect the people, their ceremonies and all that is connected to their way if life.
The painting depicts qalehtaka surrounded by his medicine and the power that comes with his responsibility.
In front of him are the two symbols of the two nations that has been entrusted to him, for him to guard and protect.
Next to him is also the four colors of the four directions which also symbolizes the four colors of the human race for who’s safety he is also responsible.
Hopi men and women have heeded the call to serve honorably in our country’s time of need. In a way this is a self portrait of who I am. I am Qalehtaka of the Sun Forehead Clan….
1SG Fil (Yoimasa) Kewanyama, “First Sergeant
United States Army Retired
Active duty: 1976-1997”
Major Website Redo
Hopi Projects website is now in a new format that is easily readable on both computers and smaller devices and has incorporated our blog and newsletters. This will make us much more user and search engine friendly.
Please see updated cross-cultural education page
Newsletter section
Cultural Blog
This is the beginning of the Hopi cycle of the year when the Hopi initiated men are in purification time as they ceremonially light the Fire of Life and initiate young men into their societies.
See New Season Begins at Hopi, November, 2015 Newsletter
Blessings to you in this American season of Thanksgiving,
Sandra Cosentino, Director