Author Archives: admin

Hawaii Renaissance – Standing on Sacred Ground

Watch Native Hawaiians call back the rain, and use indigenous ecological and spiritual practices to restore the sacred island of Kaho`olawe after 50 years of military use as a bombing range.

Dr. John O’Connor and Cancer in the Tar Sands

Dr. John O’Connor is the family physician who documented several cases of a rare bile duct cancer in the small town on Lake Athabasca, downstream from the massive tar sands mines

Nogon Shumarov—Throat Song for the Katun River

When we were filming in the Altai Republic of Russia for Standing on Sacred Ground in 2007, renowned Altaian throat singer Nogon Shumarov spent hours with us singing several shamanic songs that connect humans to nature and other dimensions of reality.

Winnemem vs. New Agers on Mt. Shasta

Every year, California hosts PantheaCon, a gathering of pagans. This year we were invited to show film scenes and organize a dialogue about New Age appropriation of indigenous spirituality and to discuss protocols for visiting sacred places.

New Age Shamanism in Altai

This film clip from Standing on Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Tourists (2014) depicts the conflict in the Altai Republic of Russia, where Altaian shamans have for years objected to outside shamans conducting rituals at sacred places, which they consider to be disrespectful, inappropriate and spiritually dangerous.

Mapping Sacred Sites

A Native American tribe that was literally taken off the map in California’s history books — and is still unrecognized by the U.S. government — is using technology to put itself back on the map.

The Fire in Dorbo Meadow

Before dawn on the fourth and final day of the Mascal Ceremony in Ethiopia’s Gamo Highlands, a fire is lit in a sacred grove and elders gather to chant in the new year. Fundamentalist Protestants disrupted the closing ceremonies, as captured in this four-minute video clip.

The Road to Darwin

With the Australian Federal Supreme Court preparing to hear a case on the legality of the McArthur River mine expansion and river diversion plan, a group of 50 men, women and children boarded a bus in Boroloola and traveled nearly 1000 kilometers to Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory.

Song for the Rainbow Serpent

Three percent of the world’s zinc lies beneath the serpentine riverbed of northern Australia’s McArthur River — and the zinc will soon be headed to China’s steel mills.

Melting Away in the Andes

In the misty mountains of the Vilcanota Cordillera, southeast of Cusco, on the steep slopes of the Andes, the Q’eros grow potatoes, herd alpaca, chew coca and pray to the mountain deities they call Apus.