The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Northern Arizona premiere of “Standing on Sacred Ground”, a four-part documentary series that will be presented in its entirety in two shows on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
There will be a discussion following both screenings of the film, facilitated by The Inspiration of Sedona community-building group. Anthropologist and photographer Martin Gray, author of “Sacred Earth,” and Roberto Nutlouis, Green Economy Coordinator and Co-founder of the Black Mesa Water Coalition of the Navajo Nation, will be present for Q&A. This event is part of 15 days of local “Climate Care Awareness” events, from November 28th through December 12th. These will take place in conjunction with the global actions surrounding the upcoming December UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris. For more info see www.climatecareawareness.org.
Indigenous communities around the world and in the U.S. 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.
Narrated by Graham Greene, with the voices of Tantoo Cardinal and Q’orianka Kilcher, 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.
Parts One and Two: 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3
Pilgrims and Tourists: Around the world, indigenous communities stand in the way of government megaprojects. In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create their own mountain parks to rein in tourism and resist a gas pipeline that would cut through a World Heritage Site. In northern California, Winnemem Wintu girls grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock, as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge one of the West’s biggest dams and forever submerge this touchstone of a tribe.
Profit and Loss: From Papua New Guinea rainforests to Canada’s tar sands, Profit and Loss exposes industrial threats to native peoples’ health, livelihood and cultural survival. In Papua New Guinea, a Chinese government owned nickel mine has violently relocated villagers to a taboo sacred mountain, built a new pipeline and refinery on contested clan land, and is dumping mining waste into the sea. In Alberta, First Nations people suffer from rare cancers as their traditional hunting grounds are stripmined to unearth the world’s third-largest oil reserve. Indigenous people tell their own stories—and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption.
A discussion will follow both screenings of “Standing on Sacred Ground,” facilitated by The Inspiration of Sedona — an open, egalitarian, community-building group, where people with enthusiasm for positive world change can collectively come together to create a new level of community based on connection, partnership, and sustainability. Martin Gray and Roberto Nutlouis will join them to answer questions.
Gray has spent 30 years studying and photographing hundreds of sacred sites in over 125 countries. One of his motivations for doing so has been to gather evidence showing that pre-industrial cultures throughout the world recognized the Earth to be a sacred being worthy of deep respect and gentle treatment. Studying the development of sanctity at sacred sites, it become clear to him that many ancient peoples had a reverential relationship with the living earth. He believes that if such a relationship can be reawakened and encouraged in our own culture, we will be better able to address the crisis of worldwide ecological degradation. Gray is interested in assisting the widespread socio-cultural phenomena he sees occurring, which is the awakening and vitalization of a global eco-spiritual consciousness that he believes can address our climate crises.
Roberto is Dine (Navajo) from the community of Pinon, AZ. He is of the Todichinii (Bitter Water) clan, born for To' Tsoni (Big Water) clan. Roberto has been active for many years on environmental justice, food security, energy efficient housing and indigenous youth leadership development through his involvement with Native Movement, Indigenous Youth Coalition of Pinon, Black Mesa Water Coalition and Indigenous Community Enterprises. Roberto received his Bachelors of Science in Applied Indigenous Studies from Northern Arizona University (NAU) in 2005, and he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Sustainable Communities from NAU. In his spare time, he likes to work on food security issues and traditional knowledge in agriculture with local Native youth.