As our delegation of 25 sacred site guardians traveled to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2016, our first stop was the island of Maui, where we were welcomed by members of the Protect Kaho`olawe Ohana (PKO).
National Park Service curator Wendy Bustard spent a day with us, displaying an array of New Age offerings and reflecting on why they are considered offensive by native people. Here is a scene we weren’t able to include in the film.
In this moving visual poem, Christopher McLeod explores why certain places are held to be sacred and how wilderness nourishes the soul. Stories include a Hawaiian protest against geothermal drilling in the Wao Kele O Puna rainforest, the vision song of Southern Ute elder Eddie Box, and an interview with Earth First founder Dave Foreman.
The legendary Winnemem Wintu healer, Florence Jones (1907-2003), passed on leadership of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to Caleen Sisk over a decade ago. Although Chief Sisk is recognized the world over as a powerful indigenous leader, the U.S. government continues its failure to recognize the Winnemem Wintu.
Once each year, the Winnemem Wintu make a summer pilgrimage to their sacred spring on Mt Shasta, the source of the McCloud River, to conduct a healing ceremony. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, New Age offerings — mostly in the form of crystals — disrupted the start of the ceremony as designated men had to clean the spring by removing all foreign objects.
This clip contains three scenes from Standing on Sacred Ground—in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia. We’ve frequently been asked the question, “What is the tangible value of sacred places?”
One of the most dramatic scenes in episode 3, Fire and Ice, of our Standing on Sacred Ground series, unfolded during a new year ceremony that escalated to a dangerous conflict right before my eyes – and my lens
How does one sacred site struggle affect another? When Ritz Carlton resort construction on Maui churned up the bones of 1,100 ancestors who were peacefully resting in sand dunes, seasoned defenders of Kaho`olawe island responded to the call. Here’s how two sacred places were saved.
In rural Papua New Guinea, the villagers of Bosmun revive a long dormant canoe ceremony along their sacred Ramu river.
In Standing on Sacred Ground’s second episode, Profit and Loss, we have a couple brief scenes featuring Mike Mercredi explaining a detailed map of the tar sands that he and Lionel Lepine created for their Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation tribal government.