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.
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.
The California Supreme Court is deciding whether to take on the West Berkeley Shellmound case. Project Director Toby McLeod argues that they must!
On the day the California Court of Appeal heard arguments over whether to uphold lower court protection of the West Berkeley Shellmound, landowners erected a six-foot chain link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire. It was a gut punch.
In a stunning development, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site on their 2020 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Help stop the Bureau of Reclamation from enlarging Shasta Dam. Please send your comment letter by October 5, a sample letter is provided in this blog. Thank you!
When Soviet forces forcibly relocated the Yaghnobi from their mountain valley in what is now Tajikistan, the Russians were unable to crush the spirit of the people. Their cultural lifeblood remained in their homeland and they returned to create the Yaghnob National Natural Park to protect their ancient cultural landscape.
On April 7, 2018, artifacts from the West Berkeley Shellmound and Emeryville Shellmound, some of them thousands of years old, were removed from storage at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum and, for the first time ever, shown to the general public at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. More than 300 people joined the California Institute for Community Arts and Culture and friends to view these remarkable objects and hear a panel of contemporary Native California artists.
Following free online screenings of the four episodes of Standing on Sacred Ground, we discussed updates and current struggles with indigenous leaders featured in the films. Here are four YouTube videos of those interactive Zoom conversations.
Celebrate Earth Day with free online screenings of the four films in our Standing on Sacred Ground series, one per week, with discussions with indigenous leaders featured in the films.