About us

Hawk Mountain Earth Center’s Circle

 

Akoth Ambugo

I bring the waters, tend the fires and keep the children alive.
I am offspring of the soil, reserver of the sacred and earth is my home.
I came to enjoy earth’s gifts and rejoice with humankind to earth’s hidden treasures. In return I promise to keep the earth pure for those yet to arrive.
Kind is my name and earth is home. While the earth struggles and the people struggle my role is that of a servant. I offer my service in all the places I go and in any capacity I am needed. I’m currently a keeper of Green Oasis Village, a community garden in the South Ward on Newark NJ. I am committed to learning about Indegenous Land Management and all its complex textures. From soil building, to animal husbandry, seed keeping, herbalism, beekeeping, sacred ceremonies and the whole gambut. I commit to sharing what I’m learning with my community here and in my ancestral land Kenya, and then some.
I am Akoth, I bring the rain.

Marcellis Counts

Green Space Innovator/Wildlife conversationist
My name is Marcellis and I am inspired by people who fight for what they believe in. I am inspired by people who give with their hearts and believe in helping others. Making the world a safer, healthier place is a goal I look forward spending my life to help achieve. I spend most of my time daydreaming about my plans to transform Newark into an environmental hub. When I am not beekeeping or gardening I am watching anime, wandering, hiking or spending time with friends. I look forward to creating spaces where children can play, adults can heal, and hopefully we all can be okay. I’m happy to work alongside people who are truly committed to creating change.

Lili Gomez

Lili Gomez is a popular educator dedicated to recuperating ancient traditions and holistic ways of living and learning. For over a decade she has been involved in horizontally-run educational centers, farms, organizations and other work spaces across the American continent. Her experience and expertise span areas of urban farming, herbalism, foraging, permaculture, and natural construction, as well as community mediation, mindfulness and consensus-decision making. Liliana is a mother to a self-directed young adult and believes all people can be and do their best when respected and treated as full human beings from the youngest age, as well as nurtured and supported by their communities. She believes that compassion, empathy and respect are critical guides in our interactions with all our relations. She believes that compassion, empathy and respect are critical guides in our interactions with all our relations. She is excited to grow Hawk Mountain Earth Center into a communal land based resource to provide multidimensional support for everyone looking to heal themselves, their communities and the planet.

Wanbli Gleska Tokahe

Born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on October 29, 1950 to Lakota (Sioux) parents, Richard K. Iyotte, better known among his people as Wanbli Gleska Tokahe, had the honor of being raised by his father’s mother for much of his life, and by his father’s four sisters and two brothers. His mother had five sisters also. So he was raised by lots of aunties and a few uncles, all traditional Lakota. Having had both parents pass away, and lost two brothers and two sisters. Wanbli currently has 5 siblings. One older and one younger brother, and three younger sisters who all stay in touch. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1955 through the US government’s “relocation” program in which natives were relocated to the big cities to assimilate.”This program did harm to us in losing our language and traditional way of life. My father did a very brilliant thing where he sent me home to the rez to stay with my gramma, so I was the only member of our family who retained much of our traditional way of life, and (continue) speaking our language. My traditional life taught me much about how to be self sufficient. Planting gardens, hunting, fishing, lots of horses, wild life etc.”

Being raised around women, Wanbli was exposed to a variety of music. In L.A his mother put him in accordion classes. Due to Elvis and the Beatles he moved on to play guitar. Today Wanbi plays many instruments. His love of music led him to form a Rock Band when he returned to the Indian reservation and eventually he would tour the world playing music which gave him an opportunity to visit other cultures and experience their music and ways of life. Other work experiences included interstate truck driving, school bus driving, working in broadcasting, managing radio stations, and teaching music theory to elementary school children. Wanbli’s educational achievements include an AS in Hotel/Restaurant, a Bachelors in Business/Accounting, and three years of law, with a focus on Reservation law. Wanbli served as a public defender in Tribal courts.

For Wanbli his spirituality and his family has always been of most importance. He has been a Lakota Sundancer and Pipe carrier for half of his life. He is a proud father, grandfather and great grandfather. His oldest child is 46, his youngest 7. He also loves his morning coffee.

Zelene Quiles

Zelene is a practicing acupuncturist and herbalist with over 15 years of experience.
A graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine her expertise encompasses a range of Chinese healing modalities. The holistic nature of this medicine has lead her to study and incorporate a various tools in the energetic, emotional and physical realms of healing. Her personal healing journey include the dedicated practice and study of Tai Qi/Qi Gong, meditation, aromatherapy, homeopathy, and sound healing. While trained in Neuro-Acupuncture which is a specific and effective system used to treat neurological disorders and injuries. She recognizes the need to contemplate all of the options and effectiveness of natural healing methods and to share this understanding with other, “I’m excited to be a part of Hawk Mountain! The outdoors are a healing sanctuary for me and growing food and medicine, having access to clean land to do that, and spreading the enthusiasm for these things is essential for collective survival in these chaotic times. Cultivating a relationship with the Earth, the plants, animals and with people who are doing the same has been a blessing. I hope to support Hawk Mountain in bringing these opportunities for learning, growth and healing to more people.”

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Hawk Mountain Earth Center’s Board of Advisors

 

Alexander Khost

Alex has been working as a youth rights activist for twenty-five plus years. He is the founder of Flying Squads and Voice of the Children, providing youth with opportunities to self-manage, lead, and delegate decisions concerning their own lives, enabling them to become empathetic individuals who are agents of constructive change.

Rev Dele

Rev Dele is a grandmother, author and spiritual leader who opens the environmental narrative to include the voice of Mother Nature so we create JOY with our Impact. With a personal Indigenous lineage including Yoruba, Akan, Cherokee and Mig Maw, Rev Dele was blessed to become an Odicini within the Akan Spiritual United Order just before she was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1999. Trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2014 in Johannesburg she combines her spiritual direction skills to guide the next generation of resilience leaders in faith, ecology and economic empowerment. Dele teaches that justice begins with the inner balance we experience in Nature and then flows throughout human relationships in social, political and economic systems. Her upcoming children’s book, “Daughter of the Tree” inspires us with the childhood spiritual practice of Sojourner Truth in nature while in Ulster county New York. “Breath of Life” is her Creation Care Bible study available on Amazon. “Let Heav’n Nature Sing” is an ebook climate devotional.

A lifelong social weaver Dele has developed programs with national impact in California, Oklahoma, Washington D.C. Virginia and now New York. Merging contemplation and permaculture, Dele is currently launching Soil & Souls, a worker owned native and medicinal plant nursery that provides leadership training and community education in resilience.