Grantee Spotlight – YAKANAL

 Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz – a poetic documentary created by a partnership with YAKANAL and The Cultural Conservancy (shown above).

YAKANAL is a grassroots organization based in the Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, which is dedicated to strengthening Indigenous food systems, cultural knowledge, and leadership through land-based practices. Founded in 2011 and fiscally sponsored by the New Mexico Community Foundation, YAKANAL endeavors to strengthen cultural identity and leadership through intergenerational mentoring while supporting the broader community’s reconnection to traditional foodways grounded in balance, respect, and stewardship of land and water. Its name combines the word for “corn” in the Western Keres and Yucatec Mayan languages, affirming YAKANAL’s kinship to the land and ancestral responsibility to food.

YAKANAL’s programs respond to community priorities related to access to traditional foods, revitalization of farming practices, seed stewardship, health, and the transmission of cultural knowledge. YAKANAL’s integrated initiatives include traditional agriculture fields, fruit orchards, bee apiaries, community hornos, hoop houses for food and medicinal plants, cultural astronomy, and cultural exchanges. These programs are implemented in close collaboration with Tribal leadership, local farmers, elders, and culture-bearers to ensure alignment with Indigenous governance, land-use practices, and cultural protocols.

Recognizing the importance of “water as life,” YAKANAL participants produced and edited a video called “Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz” that serves as a reminder of our sacred relationship to thunder, clouds, rain, and sustainable ways of living in relationship to water. 

Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz is a video-poem—a poetic documentary—created in partnership with the The Cultural Conservancy over the course of one year and four documentary trainings. It was created by youth from 14 distinct Indigenous communities. Through images, sounds, words and feelings, the film celebrates the indigeneity that roots us in our lands with the flow of water that connects us all.

YAKANAL’s vision for the future is to establish a Native Foods Center for processing and distribution of agricultural gifts, honey, fruit, and wildlife, complemented by an educational Learning Hub for hosting gatherings and workshops.

For more information, visit YAKANAL.org or send email to info@yakanal.org

YAKANAL’s integrated initiatives include community hornos (shown above).