After the Sacred Hunka Ceremony for Čhaŋté Wašté, Morad Farad, at the first Imagine OR Gathering, October 12-15, 2023.The Sacred Eternal Reality of the Hunka Ceremony
The Hunka Ceremony is one of the most sacred acts in our Nations because it reaches deeper than blood, more profound than clan, deeper than any human boundary. When two people become Hunka, they enter a bond as binding as birth itself.This sacred bond also unites their extended families, both in the seen and unseen worlds. For we know that the spiritual worlds, the worlds of pure light, sometimes called, “The Other Side Camp” are closer than our closest vein.
In the old way, the way carried on long before colonial times, Hunka relatives were treated exactly the same as your own blood relatives. There was no difference in rights, responsibilities, or love. A Hunka son was a son. A Hunka sister was a sister. A Hunka parent was a parent. This was understood across the plains and held with great reverence.
And this understanding extended beyond the Oceti Sakowin. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ponca, Ojibwe, and many others recognized the sacredness of Hunka bonds. Through this ceremony, entire Nations sealed peace, friendship, protection, and shared responsibility. The original alliances of Turtle Island were shaped not by treaties on paper, but by Hunka relationships of the heart.
These ceremonies made it clear: “We are one extended family now. We rise together. We fall together. We protect each other’s children as our own.”
Hunka is not simply an adoption and the giving of a Sacred Name. It is spiritual kinship, political unity, and communal responsibility woven together.
