East Coast Pilgrimage June 2019
Hobah Hanu, there is a voice in the land softly singing in a language of peace, reawakening the origins of Holiness in our common humanity with God and all beings. Come join us! Listen with your hearts and together let us re-consecrate a mutual legacy of sacred words to kindle justice for healing the soul wounds of our nations. - Larry and Deborah Littlebird and Greg Valerio SEE A SLIDESHOW OF THE 2019 PILGRIMAGE!
DUE TO COVID our next pilgrimage has been postponed until 2022 WALKING BACKWARD INTO THE FUTURE
Bearing Witness to the American Indian Holocaust JOIN US for a timely spoken word conversation with Pueblo Indian Elder/Master Storyteller, Larry Littlebird from New Mexico and Dr. Greg Valerio, founder of a Celtic Monastic community on the South Downs of England near the mythic Chanctonbury Ring. Exchanging stories rooted in the ancient wisdom traditions of the indigenous Celtic people and tribal American Indians they illuminate historical layers of racial injustice, settler colonialism and climate disruption. Set apart by land, water and time, they offer a fresh look into our human connections, one to another and to God as Origin. Embarking on this migratory journey of healing and forgiveness, they ask us to join them in charting a way toward peace, justice and reconciliation. CITIES AND DATES: NEW HAVEN, CT / Friday, June 14 / 7:00 PM / Yale Divinity School / PURCHASE TICKETS WESTMINSTER, VT / Monday, June 17 / 7:30 PM / Congregational Church of Westminster West / MORE INFO LANCASTER, PA / Thursday, June 20 / 6:00 PM / The Parish House (of St. James Episcopal Church) / PURCHASE TICKETS REAWAKENING OUR ORIGINS - A PEREGRINATION
All day pilgrimage and spiritual retreat on a significant indigenous landscape Led by Larry and Deborah Littlebird and Dr. Greg Valerio. Retreat Details SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2019 - New Haven, CT
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Fort Hale Park, Harbor Pavilion (on the water side fo the park) 20 Woodward Ave, New Haven, CT 06512 Opening Healing Ceremony at the adjacent Ft. Wooster Park, memorial site of the Quinnipiac Indian Tribe REGISTER FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2019 - Lancaster, PA
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (Summer Solstice) Donegal Springs at Donegal Presbyterian Church 1891 Donegal Springs Road, Mount Joy, PA 17552 REGISTER SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 2019 - Lancaster, PA
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Lancaster County, PA (just west of Millersville,PA) Conestoga Indian memorial site near preserved property along Indian Run in the Manor. This retreat is being held on private land and the actual address will be emailed to you once you register. REGISTER 
"The blood in the land has a voice. It still cries out. From that long time past through all the years arriving up to the present, how do we begin to make sense of all that has transpired across these waters and lands? How do we restore the Origin root and heal the up-rootedness of a nation? It's very recent that people have begun to talk about colonization and the American Indian Holocaust. I am grateful that in a few camps around small fires these truthful healing words are finally being spoken out loud. Could it be at last the listening time? Can we discover how children are born for peace?" - Larry Littlebird
“In my work as an advocate for justice for socially marginalized people around the world, I have had the privilege to build long-term relationships within these indigenous communities. A common narrative I often encounter with the people is that they converse with God as Creator; they have a clear sense of the land they come from; the land and the people are in fact one; and the injustices done to their people are still alive and crying out for justice and reparation. This is why they cannot leave the land of their ancestors. In the Americas, the innocent victims of one of the world's biggest holocausts demands a living witness. Where we stand is significant. Can we start again as humble servants in the land and embody what it means to be indigenous to place?”
-Greg Valerio 
Walking backward into the future is about finding a way forward to heal the soul wounds of our nations. As we make this pilgrimage across America, from east to west, entering significant indigenous landscapes, we arrive at the threshold of the visible and invisible -open to all possibilities. -Larry and Deborah Littlebird and Greg Valerio
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Larry Littlebird
(Laguna/Santo Domingo Pueblos) is the founding director and spiritual elder of Hamaatsa, an indigenous continuum, simple living farm and spiritual retreat center located on 320 acres of environmentally protected lands in the rolling foothills of the Ortiz Mountains, south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, once homelands to Littlebird’s Puebloan people. A master storyteller and inspirational speaker, Littlebird shares story legacies and prophecies from his tribal American oral tradition culture. His signature experiential curriculum, Learning to Listen©, has had a profound impact on many lives working with individuals, social businesses, tribes, schools and community leaders and organizations. Providing spiritual guidance through his remedial work through listening circles, story camps and wilderness pilgrimages, his clients are able to realize a cathartic process within their own lives. As a filmmaker, artist and author, Littlebird was one of the first American Indians to produce and direct films for and about Native people. 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 divine relationship with all life. FULL BIO > 
Dr. Greg Valerio is the Spiritual Director of the Society of St. Columba, a monastic agrarian community on the South Downs of England. Greg has an MA in Celtic Christianity and is an international speaker in the New Monasticsim movement. An advocate for socially marginalized people and indigenous communities from around the world, in 2016, Greg was honored with an MBE (a British honour given to a person by the Queen for their achievement in community service) for his humanitarian work in fairtrade gold mining in Africa and South America. Respected for his creativity and reviled for his compassion, the destinations Greg often visits are like apocalyptic scenes, Sierra Leone diamond mines, Congolese gold mines and Indian gemstone mines where adults and children worked knee-high in mud, exploited by local and international traders, the modern day slavery of extreme proportions. Greg confronted the industry giants to create a way for justice in jewellery to pursue human rights for the local indigenous miners and their communities addressing poverty, health issues, empowering women, alleviating child labor and pursuing environmental justice for their polluted ecosystems. Greg is the author of Making Trouble, his personal story about fighting for justice in jewellery. FULL BIO >
Deborah Littlebird is the producer/creative director for Walking Backward into the Future and the Slow Story project on Listening Ground. Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, she has a Fine Arts degree from Kendall School of Design and was an art director for an award winning graphic design firm in the Midwest. In 1991, she moved to New Mexico, where she has since worked alongside her husband, Larry Littlebird. She is the co-founder/spiritual director of Hamaatsa, an indigenous continuum, hermitage retreat and botanical farm where she facilitates story camps and contemplative retreats on a 320-acre wild land sanctuary. Also an herbalist, botanical farmer and natural foods chef, Deborah shares her passion for plants and food as medicine. www.listeningground.org
FULL BIO > WALKING BACKWARD INTO THE FUTURE is presented by Hamaatsa in collaboration with the Society of St. Columba. For more info: littlebird@hamaatsa.org
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