Witness the betrayal suffered by villagers in Papua New Guinea when their initial hopes are dashed by a Chinese government-owned mining company that doesn’t raise their standard of living but violently relocates them to a taboo sacred mountain.
Hear how one young man thrilled to work in the giant tar sands stripmines quickly learns the true cost as friends and family in his nearby village suffer and die from rare cancers. This scene comes from the Profit and Loss episode of the four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground.
Watch five indigenous Q’eros pilgrims in the Peruvian Andes be driven from their ritual site by intolerant Catholics. This scene comes from the Fire and Ice episode of the four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground.
Tensions explode in the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia when evangelical Christians interrupt an ancient traditional ceremony and begin building a church in the heart of a sacred meadow. This scene comes from the Fire and Ice episode of the four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground.
See Aboriginal elders practice ancient rituals and protest government collusion with mining companies that is destroying a sacred river in Australia’s Northern Territory.
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 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
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.
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.
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.