This four-day film festival (oct 5-8) with dialogues from guest speakers takes place at Movie W Film Theatre in Wageningen Netherlands. The festival evolves around the mining boom currently threatening the environment, people and indigenous communities around the world. It highlights the impacts on indigenous peoples’ sacred places and their ways of living, seeing and caring for the world we all inhabit today.
Danil Mamyev and his intepreter from Altai with Chief Calleen Sisk from California on stage at the World Conservation Congress in Jeju Korea, 2012. Along side film maker Christopher (Toby) Mcleod, Chief Caleeen Sisk speaks to the film segments of a forthcoming documentary series that shows the current threats to the sacred natural sites of the Winnemen Wintu. Photo: Bas Verschuuren
The festival starts with three premiere screenings for the Netherlands: “Profit and Loss” (October 5th) showing issues of mining development in Papua New Guinea and the Canadian tar sands. “Islands of Sanctuary” (October 6th) which follows indigenous Australians in their fight against the mining industry and native Hawaiians recuperating a disused bombing range on of their sacred islands. “Pilgrims and Tourists” (October 7th) shows the local resistance to a pipeline being built through the Russian Altai into China and the struggle of the Californian Winnemem Wintu against a hydro power dam being imposed on their traditional lands, flooding sacred sites. The festival closes with “Huicholes the last Peyote Guardians” (October 8th) showing the struggle for conservation of a sacred land in the face of gold and silver mining in Mexico.
As a response to the clashing worldviews shown in the films, a thematic debate with activists, journalists and scholars, conducting research on site, will engage the audience in discussion.
Guest Speakers
Mirjam Koedoot – Freelance innovator and reporter at Trouw (October 5th)
Elisabet Rasch – Anthropologist and activist at Sociology of Development and Change Chair group (WUR) (October 6th)
Gerard Verschoor – Sociologist on indigenous worldviews at Sociology of Development and Change Chair group (WUR) (October 7th)
Oscar Reyna – PhD candidate in political ontology at Sociology of Development and Change Chair group (WUR) (October 8th)
Bas Verschuuren – Coordinator for the Sacred Natural Sites Initiative (Facilitator)
Movie summaries
5 October: Profit and Loss. Christopher McLeod, 2013.
Synopsis. ‘Profit and Loss’ tells the stories of two indigenous groups and their resistance to the modern gold rush – our insatiable thirst for mineral resources that threatens their lands. In Papua New Guinea, villagers resist forced relocation by a nickel mine and try to stop its plan to dump mining waste into the sea. In Canada, First Nations people protest the destruction of traditional hunting and fishing grounds by the tar sands industry, which brings jobs, but also may be causing cancer. Rare verity scenes of tribal life allow indigenous people to tell their own stories – and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption. Narrated by Graham Greene, this film is part of the ‘Standing on Sacred Ground’ documentary series.
6 October: Islands of Sanctuary. Christopher McLeod, 2013.
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.
Featuring Patrick Dodson (Yawuru), Emmett Aluli and Davianna McGregor (Hawai`i), Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe), Oren Lyons (Onondaga), Satish Kumar and Barry Lopez.
Altai shaman Maria Amanchina assists cultural expert Maya Erlenbaeva with mapping sacred sites that exist outside protected areas in an attempt to enhance their protection. Photo courtesy of Chistopher McLeod & Sacred Land Film Project.
7 October: Pilgrims and Tourists. Christopher McLeod, 2013.
Synopsis. Indigenous shamans resist massive government projects that threaten the fragile balance of nature and culture. In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create and patrol their own mountain parks, trying to rein in tourism and reroute a pipeline to China planned by state-owned Gazprom. In northern California, Winnemem Wintu teenagers grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock their ancestors used for a thousand years, as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge Shasta Dam and forever submerge the touchstone of a tribe. With Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg), Oren Lyons (Onondaga), Barry Lopez and Satish Kumar. Narrated by Graham Greene, with cultural stories narrated by Tantoo Cardinal.
8 October: Huicholes, The Last Peyote Guardians. Hernan Vilchez, 2014.
Synopsis. The film tells the story of the mystical Wixarika People also known as the Huicholes, one of the last living pre-Hispanic cultures in Latin America. Their sacred ancestral territory known as Wirikuta is home to the famous peyote cactus that has guided and inspired generations of Wixarika. Today the Wixarika struggle against the Mexican government and multinational mining corporations that are encroaching on their homelands. Their activities are threatening the delicate culture and biodiversity of this unique landscape that is recognised as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage. An unequal and controversial fight triggers the global debate between ancient cultural values, the exploitation of nature and the inevitable process of change and development.
For more information about the guest speakers and the program please visit www.stichtingruw.nl, www.st-otherwise.org or Movie W Film Theatre. The event is sponsored by Wageningen University Fund- Broadening Horizons.
