The Name Committee formed first within the Hakomi Institute, our sister organization, in August 2019, with the intent of understanding the impact of our use of a word from Hopi archaic language, Hakomi, as the name of our method of psychotherapy. Currently there are five of us on the committee—Rebecca Lincoln, Maya Shaw Gale, and Donna Roy from HI, and Angela Davis and Marcia Burton from HEN.
For more detail, here is the link to the previous updates: https://hakomiinstitute.com/about/the-hakomi-name/hopi-language-origin.
In July of 2020, HEN began collaborating with this committee. In January 2021, we began working with two Indigenous consultants, who have helped us sort the best ways to be in contact with the Hopi people, with whom to initiate contact, and how to prepare ourselves to be in contact with people from the Hopi Nation.
During 2021 as we continued to meet, research, listen to our dreams and stay open to organicity, we got clearer that the name decision is secondary to relationship building with the Hopi. We saw that, regardless of whether we change our name or not, we must learn how to come into relationship with the Hopi people, if they are open to this. And understanding the significance of reciprocity as a crucial element of relationship for the Hopi and other indigenous peoples, we recognized that our historic lack of reciprocity was a major block to true relationship with the Hopi.
In 2022, we began intentionally opening to ways of giving back (reciprocity) that align with Hopi wishes and needs. Some possibilities were considered, including a suggestion from our indigenous consultants, but our attempts to make contact got stalled out. Not until
we received a direct request related to a Hopi elder/healer and his wife, did we feel clarity about our next step. The timing of the request felt synchronous, nourished a consensus in us as a committee, and led to an impulse to respond.
In February 2023 we sent out a joint HI and HEN community letter and donation request.
As of this moment, we have received over $6,000 from all around the Hakomi diaspora and have sent this to the Hopi elder/couple. They have responded with deep gratitude, humility and surprise.
As our next steps, the Name Committee intends to submit a proposal to our leadership teams by the summer of 2023 related to developing a Hopi Reconciliation Fund and ideas for an ongoing program connected with people from the three Hopi Mesas.