For the last five years, Lisjan Ohlone leader Corrina Gould has been protecting one of her people’s sacred places, the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site, from development. A judge ruled against the developer’s plans in October 2019 but the two sides are now battling it out in appeals court.
Animator Chris Walker and Ohlone leader Corrina Gould of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan have collaborated with the Sacred Land Film Project to take you back in time 5,000 years to imagine the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village site, where Corrina’s ancestors built the first settlement along San Francisco Bay.
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.
As messenger and translator for Hopi elders since 1948, Thomas Banyacya, Sr. (1909-1999) traversed the globe trying to help people understand the warnings revealed in the Hopi Prophecy. In November 1995, the Sacred Land Film Project followed Thomas to the Whole Life Expo in Las Vegas where he made two hour-long presentations over two days. Here is Part 2 of 2.
As messenger and translator for Hopi elders since 1948, Thomas Banyacya Sr. (1909-1999) traversed the globe trying to help non-Hopi people understand the warnings revealed in the Hopi Prophecy. In November 1995, the Sacred Land Film Project followed Thomas to the Whole Life Expo in Las Vegas where he made two presentations over two days. Here is part 1 of 2.
Sacred Land Film Project Director Toby McLeod participated in this year’s Run4Salmon, a two-week prayerful journey to restore McCloud River salmon runs and protect indigenous lifeways.
Surrounded by boutique storefronts in the upscale Fourth Street shopping area of Berkeley sits an unassuming 2-acre parking lot. For 5,000 years this was an Ohlone Village Site where two massive shellmounds grew—sites of burial and ceremony.
In 1875, biologist Livingstone Stone collected a sampling of belongings — baskets and ceremonial regalia — from the Winnemem Wintu people who lived along the McCloud River, below Mt. Shasta in northern California.
The birth of the radical environmental movement is captured in this short, poetic film on the legendary direct action at Glen Canyon Dam in March of 1981.
Why has the U.S. government failed to offer an apology to Native Americans? Canada and Australia are way ahead—but what good is an apology if actions do not follow?