History of the Institute

The Tazzla Institute published a newsletter during the first three years of its existence, which you will eventually be able to read online. The newsletter carried such articles as "Chief Seattle, Fable and Truth", "Tisquantum: history of the first Thanksgiving," and two superb articles on American Indian spirituality by an Indian woman of California, and an Oglala Lakota woman of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.

In 1994, The Marin County Indian Alliance approached Helene Hagan, the Director of the Institute, with the idea of producing a community television series on American Indians of Marin County. The idea was implemented by Helene Hagan, who underwent training to become a community television producer for Marin Channel 31. She began to hold a series of meetings with representatives of the Coast Miwok of Marin and Sonoma counties, and with the Marin Indian Alliance, to structure a series of community television programs. The project was supported by Sally Sherlock, President of the Marin Indian Alliance, and Lannie Pinola (Pomo/Miwok) of Kule Loklo Village in West Marin. The series which was hosted primarily by Lannie and occasionally by Sally was given the name of "Circles, American Indians in Marin."

When it went into production, Helene Hagan was assisted by Dr. Sandy Turner Parry and Sacheen Littlefeather, and graphics for the program were executed by Sharon Skolnik of Visigraf. The original 11 programs aired on Marin Channel 31 have also been aired by Adelphia Communications in Santa Monica and Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. They have been preserved on 3/4 master tapes and subsequently converted to digital videography on DVDs. See Video section for titles and description.

Three students of The Environmental Forum of Marin, a training program from which Helene Hagan graduated, sought her assistance in creating a four hour long documentary for the Forum on the Ecology of the San Francisco Bay. Helene Hagan was the producer of that series, and created a number of roll-ins as well as the title pages for it. She also appeared as guest on one of the programs, which offered a series of distinguished guests on environmental issues. She subsequently revised the four hour program into an eight half-hour series for Adelphia Communications in 2000. SeeVideo Section for titles and description.

In 1997, Helene Hagan, Board members Shirley Chesney, Sandy Turner Parry, and Leonard Hawkins, photographer for Tazzla Institute, traveled to Morocco to explore the south, and were joined by Bay Area Rock Art Association President Dr. Paul Freeman and journalist and Art Critique for Le Figaro Jeanine Warnod for a three-week trek in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and some pre-Sahara regions, location of a number of rock art sites. From over twenty hours of video footage she took, Helene Hagan created a documentary series titled "Tamazgha: Berber Land of Morocco." (10 half hour programs) . In 1998, after traveling to the first international gathering of Berbers in Tafira, Canary Islands, also in the company of Shirley Chesney, Hagan added 2 programs on "Amazigh Identity" for the benefit of the World Amazigh Congress. This program, and others of the series, was also shown in New York by the Amazigh Cultural Association in America, a Berber organization that Hagan joined in 1998. She served twice on the board of directors of A.C.A.A. for a period of four years.

Amazigh Video Productions was created in 2000, as a project of Tazzla Institute. More community programs followed, with a series of five half-hour programs produced in the Santa Monica studios of Adelphia communications , "The Russell Means Show" with the noted American Indian activist as host, followed by eight half-hour programs in the series "Amazigh News" produced at the Eagle Rock studios of Adelphia Communications. Today, all programs are available on DVDs

Meanwhile, Vice President Shirley Chesney, working closely with President Hagan, began a series of annual programs at the United Nations in New York, under the umbrella of a UNESCO project "Culture de la Paix." The annual cultural presentation , titled "Creating Peace through the Arts and Media" included Amazigh (Berber) speakers and guests selected by Tazzla Institute, and documentaries produced by Amazigh Video Productions. It was presented by a coalition of NGOs on the mission elaborated by an Editorial composed by Hagan and Chesney in 1994, published in the Newsletter of the Institute of Archetypal Ethnology, on violence and the media. Hagan also traveled to the United Nation Conference that prepared the First Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and presented a paper on the benefits of international alliances and partnerships between indigenous groups. Tazzla Institute has been present at all sessions of the Permanent Forum in New York through Shirley Chesney, the Vice President ot the Institute. Tazzla has also sponsored the entries of a number of individuals through accreditation with Tamaynut, a Moroccan Human Rights association. In 2009, Tazzla sponsored four members of the newly formed Tuareg organization, KelTamashekVision, for the Eighth Session of the Permanent Forum.

In 1999, Tazzla Institute began to collaborate with a Tuareg NGO, President Issyad Ag Kato, OVD Tedhilt, which created a number of desert schools for nomadic children of northern Niger. The Institute raised some funds for the purchase of goats and a well. In 2006, Helene Hagan was contacted by David and Lucile Myers, an Australian couple who wanted to help with the sale of Tuareg Jewelry. In response, Hagan began to write a booklet on the jewelry which ultimately became a book published in 2006 under the title of "Tuareg Jewelry: Traditional Patterns and Symbols." The cost of publication will likely be totally recovered before the end of year 2009, and royalties from the sale of the book will then be set aside to help the Desert schools of Niger with essential needs and supplies.

In 2006-2007, Tazzla institute was also instrumental in creating a live Tuareg presence at the Tuareg Exhibit of the UCLA Fowler Museum "The Art of Being Tuareg." It brought to the exhibit the presence of Mohammed Ewangaye, a well known figure of the northern Niger Tuareg human rights movement, (who also graciously reviewed the book on Tuareg Jewelry) and the contribution of the Niger musical ensemble, Tidawt.

In 2005, Tazzla Institute sponsored the first Amazigh Festival in Santa Cruz (presented by Aza Musicians of Morocco) and two years later, in 2007 participated to the first Berber Institute for the teaching of Amazigh Studies, held at the Oregon University at Corvallis, Oregon, organized by Dr. Nabil Boudraa of the Foreign Language Department, with the benefit of an NEH grant. Tazzla Institute offered initial support for the grant obtention, and Helene Hagan was selected to present the week long course on Amazigh Arts to a group of 25 professors from various US universities. Helene Hagan was also asked by the Oregon professors, Nabil Boudraa and Joseph Krause to write the back cover of their book "North African Mosaik", a series of essays on Amazigh studies.