McLeod, Christopher (Toby). Standing on Sacred Ground: Islands of Sanctuary. San Francisco: Sacred Land Media Collaborative, 2013. HD, 57 min. https://youtu.be/kK0TXtFXo_4.
Standing on Sacred Ground focuses on indigenous communities around the world as they resist threats to their sacred places—the original protected lands—in a growing movement to defend human rights and restore the environment. In this four-part documentary series, native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land in the form of government megaprojects, consumer culture, and resource extraction as well as competing religions and climate change. The series exposes threats to native peoples’ health, livelihood, and cultural survival in eight communities around the world. Rare verité scenes of tribal life allow indigenous people to tell their own stories—and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption. In this episode, Native Hawaiians and Aboriginal Australians resist threats to their sacred places in a growing international movement to defend human rights and protect the environment. In Australia’s Northern Territory, Aboriginal clans maintain Indigenous Protected Areas and resist the destructive effects of a mining boom. In Hawai`i, indigenous ecological and spiritual practices are used to restore the sacred island of Kaho`olawe after 50 years of military use as a bombing range. (Source: Official Film Series Website)
©2013 Christopher McLeod/Earth Island Institute. Trailer used with permission.
This film is available at the Rachel Carson Center Library (RCC, 4th floor, Leopoldstrasse 11a, 80802 Munich) for on-site viewing only. For more information, please contact library@rcc.lmu.de.
- Gadgil, Madhav, Fikret Berkes, and Carl Folke. "Indigenous Knowledge for Biodiversity Conservation." Ambio 22, no. 2/3 (1993): 151–6.
- Johnson, Sarah, ed. Indigenous Knowledge. Cambridge: The White Horse Press, 2012.
- Lanea, Marcus B., Ross, Helen and Ricksond, Roy E. "Sacred land, mineral wealth, and biodiversity at Coronation Hill, Northern Australia: indigenous knowledge and SIA." Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 21, no. 2 (2003): 89-98. doi:10.3152/147154603781766374.
- Moyo, Sam, and Paris Yeros. Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. London: Zed Books, 2005.
