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.
Four Corners documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.
Around the world, indigenous people stand up for their traditional sacred lands in defense of cultural survival, human rights and the environment.
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.
Poison in the Rockies details how thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado contaminate drinking water by leaching heavy metals into rivers and streams, a problem compounded by acid rain and snow. Broadcast four times on NOVA.
Downwind/Downstream documents serious threats to water quality, subalpine ecosystems and public health in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains due to mining, acid rain and urbanization. We updated this film for PBS’s NOVA and it became Poison in the Rockies.
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?”