Healing & Reconciliation Institute
About us
HRI is a non-profit consulting firm.
Our mission:
Guided by Indigenous-centered healing, HRI weaves together opportunities to take responsibility for historical and ongoing traumas to invoke our shared humanity.
Board of Directors
Briana Bellamy
A deep commitment to celebrating the diversity of human experience informs Briana’s work both in the U.S. and abroad. Trained as a Professional Integral Coach, her coaching is also influenced by years of immersing herself in diverse worldviews around the globe. This has led her to explore modalities of leadership development through somatic practices, nature-connected inquiry, adult development, mindfulness, and, of course, cross-cultural communication and relationship building. Through this work, she remains committed to supporting others to step more fully into their own unique brilliance.
Louellyn White
Louellyn is Mohawk from Akwesasne. She is an Associate Professor of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University in Montreal where she focuses on Indigenous education, language revitalization, Indigenous community based participatory research, Indigenous research methodologies, and residential and boarding school history. Her book, "Free to Be Mohawk: Indigenous Education at the Akwesasne Freedom School," is centered around Indigenous holistic education. Her recent research on the Carlisle Indian School is informed by her grandfather and other family members experiences of forced assimilation. She published a chapter about her family in the collection, "Carlisle Indian School: Histories, Memories, and Reclamations." Her forthcoming article in the Journal of American Indian Education is centered around the inter-generational impacts of Carlisle and how descendants are re-narrating boarding school stories in their own ways. She is also consulting with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) for whom she is researching burial locations of Carlisle students. Louellyn has an MA in Counseling Psychology and has worked in the fields of experiential education, wilderness education, service learning, and Indigenous mental health. She grew up in her traditional homelands of the Mohawk Valley in Central New York and lived in the southwest for fifteen years before returning to the northeast.
Maija West, CEO
Maija West is of Latvian and German descent. She is a mother and a wife. She grew up in Maidu territory in northeastern California and now lives in Esselen and Rumsen territories next to the Carmel River. She is a mediator and facilitator of healing and reconciliation, when invited to do so by Indigenous leaders or Nations. She is also an attorney who has a strong background in nonprofit, foundation and business governance. She is the current owner and managing attorney of the Law Office of Maija West, and co-founder and acting CEO of the Healing and Reconciliation Institute. She is also a board director of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, as well as Chair of the advisory council of the Women's Fund for Monterey County. She is part of a collective called Itsu Circle, who assists in land access, co-stewardship and return.
Siana Sonoquie
Siana is the founder of Hoop Creative Projects. Hoop Creative Projects is a visual design company that provides design services for socially minded projects and non-profits. Through their work, they fund an ongoing series of non-profit projects bringing artists, entrepreneurs and educators together with underserved communities to increase access and empower those in need.
Advisors
Testimonial
Dr. Karambu Ringera
Your project is powerful and aligns with what we are doing in East Africa (Kenya, in particular) with the New Generation of Leaders program. I believe in Kenyans/Africans led transformation work that is grounded in local contexts and resources because local people-centered (not outside experts) interventions hold the hope for ownership and sustainability for long-lasting social change at personal, family and community levels. I also believe that as the human family, we are one (we are of and connected to, something larger than our individual and collective selves), in spite of our differences - and that once we recognize this ONENESS, we are able to heal not only our individual wounded-ness but also our collective wounded-ness. Your work demonstrates that this is possible. Thank you for this amazing work.
THE BRAID OF INTEGRATED SELF
The braid of the integrated self is a metaphor for our holistic healing. This metaphor uses strains to visualize the intersection between the different entities of a community. When each strand moves from one section to the other, it forms a braid. Therefore, when each entity undergoes healing, they begin to develop their bond.
Our project aligns with various International projects that are also supporting and working with communities who have been challenged by a history of racial or cultural conflict.