Hélène Hagan immigrated to the United States in 1959. Born in Rabat, Morocco, Helene received her earlier education in Morocco and at Bordeaux University, France, where she received a Licence-ès-Lettres in British and American Studies. She holds graduate degrees from Stanford University, in French and Education, and in Cultural and Psychological Anthropology.
After conducting fieldwork (1982-1985) among the Oglala Lakota people of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and directing a photo identification project funded by the South Dakota Committee on the Humanities for the Oglala Lakota College, she worked as Associate Professor at the JFK University Graduate School of Psychology in Orinda, California, and owned an American Indian art gallery in Marin County, “Lakota Contemporary Native American Designs” to support American Indian artists. She has served as President of the non-profit educational organization she founded, Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, since 1993. The mission of Tazzla Institute is the safeguarding, support and dissemination of Amazigh cultural heritage in the United States and abroad. In 1997, she traveled to the Canary Islands to participate in the first Amazigh International Congress that took place in Tafira.
In 2000, in collaboration with several NGOS at the United Nations, and through the activities of the Vice President of Tazzla Institute, Ms. Shirley Chesney, Helene has co-led a UNESCO Culture of Peace program , “Creating Peace Through the Arts and Media” with an annual UN presentation of Amazigh films and speakers selected by Tazzla institute. Helene has published widely and is a videographer, editor, and producer of educational and cultural television programs through Amazigh Video Productions. Helene is a lifetime Associate Curator of the Paul Radin Collection at Marquette University Special Archives, and in 2007, was a guest Professor for the First Berber Institute held at the University of Oregon, Corvallis where she instructed a number of professional attendees with a full day presentation on the Amazigh arts (textiles, pottery, and cinema). In 2008, Helene created the Los Angeles Amazigh Film Festival, the first in the United States.
Books published:
The Shining Ones: Etymological Essay on the Amazigh Roots of Ancient Egyptian Civilization (2000)
Tuareg Jewelry: Traditional Patterns and Symbols (2006)
Tazz’unt: Ecology, Ritual and Social Order in the Tessawt Valley of the High Atlas of Morocco (2011)
Fifty Years in America, Book of Essays (2013)
Russell Means, The European Ancestry of a Militant Indian (2018)
Sixty Years in America, Anthropological Essays (2019)
Web sites:
https://www/helenehagan.com
https://www.laaff.org and https://www.tazzla.org