Sacred Land Speaks - Audio Archive

For more than five decades, Malcolm Margolin was a fixture at the heart of Berkeley’s intellectual community. As the founder of Heyday Books, he was instrumental in publishing hundreds of titles. Most significantly, in 1978 he published his own groundbreaking book, The Ohlone Way, which woke an entire region up to the amazing natural and human history of the greater Bay Area. He passed away from complications with Parkinson’s disease on August 20, 2025 at the age of 84.

We interviewed Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence magazine, as one of the “big-thinkers” for our Standing on Sacred Ground film series. In this episode Satish discusses sacred places, pilgrimages, global warming, Indian sacred groves, and the much-needed cultural shift “from EGOcentric to ECOcentric.

Native California healer Florence Jones (1907-2003), was the top doctor of the Winnemem Wintu and a fierce protector of Mt. Shasta, known to the Winnemem as Buliyum Puyuk—the Great Mountain. In 1994, Florence gave the Sacred Land Film Project unprecedented access to film her conducting ceremony, healing her people and protecting her territory. In this episode, we return to that footage to tell the story of this powerful medicine woman.

Over a career spanning 40 years of activism, Winona LaDuke, an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, has led movements for climate justice and indigenous rights. Over the years she published ten books, ran for vice president, led innovative grassroots environmental movements, fought and delayed the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline from the Alberta tar sands through northern Minnesota. In this episode, Winona articulates an indigenous worldview, grapples with the traumas of colonization, and imagines a path toward healing.

In part two of our interview with Anishnaabe activist, environmentalist and writer, Winona LaDuke, we focus on her economic analysis of settler colonialism, the ecological impacts of consumer demand in the United States, and the rippling effects of the oil industry from the tar sands of Alberta to the shores of Lake Superior.

Barry Lopez left us with so many gifts—messages from the road, stories that help—written beautifully by a cultural bridge, a runner who risked his life out there on the edge and returned over and over to craft a stirring tale. Barry alarmed us and gave us hope. Join project director Toby McLeod for a 2011 conversation on deep listening, the meaning of sacred lands, and the importance of maintaining an ongoing conversation with the Earth—with our good friend and advisor, the late Barry Lopez (1945-2020).

Our 2011 film interview with author Barry Lopez for the Standing on Sacred Ground series yielded an embarrassment of riches. Listen to part two of the discussion between project director Toby McLeod and his friend Barry Lopez as they reflect on the future of sacred sites, the role of technology in our lives, and the importance of following the leadership of the elders.

Our 1997 interview with Standing Rock Sioux author Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933-2005) provided a solid intellectual framework for viewers of In the Light of Reverence. Vine offers timeless wisdom about Mato Tipila (Lodge of the Bear, aka Devils Tower) and other sites sacred to the Lakota in and around the Black Hills. The author of more than 25 books, including the classics, Custer Died for Your Sins and God is Red, Vine rarely sat for film interviews.

In this second part of our 1997 interview with legendary lawyer, theologian and scholar, Vine Deloria Jr., the renowned author breaks down national policy in relation to native people, discusses his cultural identity, and makes predictions about the future of technology.

Onondaga elder Oren Lyons is one of the “big thinkers” we interviewed for our four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground. Now in his 90s, Oren Lyons is a chief, a faithkeeper, and a long-time messenger for the Haudenosaunee people. Throughout our interview, Oren shared life lessons and insights through long stories that we could never include in their entirety in the film. We are thrilled to finally have the opportunity to share Oren’s insights.

In Part One of this two-part podcast, Oren tells the story of the Peacemaker and provides a pathway forward to protect sacred places.