Bioregional Lifeways Network

Kykotsmovi


Composting workshop with Ed Mendosia from
Traditional Native American Farmers Association and the local Hopi kids.

Lilian Hill, Kykotsmovi Director is a Hopi woman from the village of Kykotsmovi. She is a member of the Tobacco (Pipwungwa) and Rabbit (Tapwungwa) clans and is founder of the Natural Builders Cooperative, a grassroots natural building collective who build homes in the Hopi community which honor rather than degrade the Earth. Lilian is an active member of her community and is an artist, poet, and writer. She has studied at the North American School of Natural Building and is co-founder of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, a youth-led organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the sustainability of Mother Earth- her plants, animals and all living beings. She is currently studying Applied Indigenous Studies with an emphasis on traditional Indigenous Knowledge at Northern Arizona University.

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture

Planting the Future-Hopi tutskwa Proposal '07 (PDF 44k)


Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture is designed to create opportunities for local Hopi youth and community members to participate in the continuation of traditional farming & gardening practices through applying applicable permaculture techniques & traditional Hopi farming methods.

Youth In Sustainability Summer Leadership Project
This is a four-month intensive summer program that focuses on youth leadership development, permaculture, Traditional Agriculture, and sustainability. This Leadership Project also aims to develop local capacity of the youth in order to address issues relating to their health and community while building sustainability within their community. The major goals and objectives of the Kykotsmovi program are outlined below.

• Create opportunities for local Hopi youth to participate in the continuation of traditional farming and gardening practices through engagement and interaction with local elders, farmers and community members.
  
  
• To encourage and develop year round youth/community programs to further our goals of providing valuable training for our youth participants in order to encourage the cultivation of skills that they will apply directly as well as share with community members and future youth participants.
  
  
• Provide relevant and culturally appropriate economic opportunities for youth and community members by providing employment and training for Coordinators, honorariums to local elders, and stipends for Indigenous Youth.
  
  
• To began the process of designing and implementing land restoration techniques within the Kykotsmovi Youth & Community Garden as well as within traditional dry land fields with local youth as a way to prepare the land for abundant harvests.
  

Living Learning Center

This is a long-term vision that seeks to provide hope and inspiration to the Hopi community as well as the larger global community through the demonstration of appropriate technology to enhance the lives of people as well as the natural world.

• Utilize local materials to build bread ovens, outside cooking areas, youth meeting/organizing spaces, & to help plaster community gathering places.
  
  
• To restore/build soils for vegetable gardening.
  
  
• To create & restore fruit tree orchards.
  
  
• Plant perrenial/biannual native plants to reduce soil erosion/build soils.
  
  
• Build a solar greenhouse for growing native plants.
  
  
• Sponsor workshops on PV Solar & Rainwater harvesting techniques.