Sacred Land Speaks

On the spring equinox in 1981, Toby McLeod interviewed the reclusive, rabble-rousing author Edward Abbey as the founders of Earth First! staged their first guerrilla theater, direct action at the much-despised Glen Canyon Dam. The footage was edited into Toby's first film, The Cracking of Glen Canyon Damn—with Edward Abbey and Earth First! 

In this episode of Sacred Land Speaks we bring you Toby's interview with Abbey, and the dra...

Native Hawaiian historian and land protector Davianna Pomaika`i McGregor is a leader in the Protect Kaho`olawe Ohana. In this second part of our interview, Davianna relates the history of settler colonialism and the impact of Christian missionaries as she delves into Native Hawaiian spirituality and traditional cultural practices.

This episode was produced and written by Callie Shanafelt Wong and Toby McLeod.

Our film interview wit...

Native Hawaiian historian and land protector Davianna Pomaika`i McGregor is a leader in the Protect Kaho`olawe Ohana. In this episode, we discuss the U.S. military occupation of Kaho`olawe and the movement to return the sacred island to Native Hawaiian stewardship after 50 years of bombing by the Navy. This story of cultural and ecological restoration offers hope to indigenous people around the world.

This episode was produced and ...

For more than five decades, Malcolm Margolin was a fixture at the heart of Berkeley’s intellectual community. As the founder of Heyday Books, he was instrumental in publishing hundreds of titles. Most significantly, in 1978 he published his own groundbreaking book, The Ohlone Way, which woke an entire region up to the amazing natural and human history of the greater Bay Area. Malcolm helped establish many cultural revitalization pr...

We interviewed long-time editor of Resurgence magazine, Satish Kumar as a "big-thinker" for our Standing on Sacred Ground film series. Born in India in 1936, Satish Kumar joined a Jain monastery when he was 9-years-old. Mahatma Ghandi was assassinated when he was 11 and at 18 the young monk left the monastery to become a student of one of Ghandi’s disciples. In 1962, at the age of 25, Satish made a two-year anti-nuclear pilgrimage,...

Our 2011 film interview with author Barry Lopez for the Standing on Sacred Ground series yielded an embarrassment of riches. Barry’s written works explore the relationship between nature and human culture and include Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award, Of Wolves and Men, and his most recent masterwork, Horizon. Barry Lopez was a master storyteller, though for project director Toby McLeod, he was also a clo...

Barry Lopez left us with so many gifts—messages from the road, stories that help—written beautifully by a cultural bridge, a runner who risked his life out there on the edge and returned over and over to craft a stirring tale. Barry alarmed us and gave us hope us with Arctic Dreams, Of Wolves and Men, The Rediscovery of North America and Horizon. Join project director Toby McLeod for our first Audio Archive, a 2011 conversation wit...

Onondaga elder Oren Lyons is one of the “big thinkers” we interviewed for our four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground. Now in his 90s, Lyons is a chief, a faithkeeper, and a long-time messenger for the Haudenosaunee people. He calls himself “a runner.” Throughout the interview, Oren shared his life lessons and insights through long stories that we could never include in their entirety in the film. 

Onondaga elder Oren Lyons is one of the “big thinkers” we interviewed for our four-part series, Standing on Sacred Ground. Now in his 90s, Lyons is a chief, a faithkeeper, and a long-time messenger for the Haudenosaunee people. He calls himself “a runner.” Throughout the interview, Oren shared his life lessons and insights through long stories that we could never include in their entirety in the film.

In Part One of this two-part...

In part two of our interview with Anishnaabe activist, environmentalist and writer, Winona LaDuke, we focus on her economic analysis of settler colonialism, the ecological impacts of consumer demand in the United States, and the rippling effects of the oil industry from the tar sands of Alberta to the shores of Lake Superior.

This episode was produced and written by Fiona McLeod, Callie Shanafelt Wong and Toby McLeod. 

Our intervie...

Over a career spanning 40 years of activism, Winona LaDuke, an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, has led movements for climate justice and indigenous rights. Over the years she published ten books, ran for vice president, led innovative grassroots environmental movements, fought and delayed the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline from the Alberta tar sands through northern Minnesota. In this Audio Archive epis...

In this second part of our 1997 interview with legendary lawyer, theologian and scholar, Vine Deloria Jr., the renowned author breaks down national policy in relation to native people, discusses his cultural identity, and makes predictions about the future of technology.

This episode was produced and written by Callie Shanafelt Wong and Toby McLeod, and recorded by Isaac Butler-Brown at Dirt Studios. Audio sweetening by Leroy Clark...

Legendary author, legal and religious scholar, professor and activist, Vine Deloria, Jr. shares profound insights into the function of ceremony in community, the meaning and importance of sacred places, the dangers of New Age appropriation, the environmental impact of Western religions, and the urgent need to re-weave spirit and matter if we hope to avert catastrophe.

This episode was produced and written by Callie Shanafel...

Native California healer Florence Jones (1907-2003), was the top doctor of the Winnemem Wintu and a fierce protector of Mt. Shasta, known to the Winnemem as Buliyum Puyuk—the Great Mountain. In 1994, Florence gave the Sacred Land Film Project unprecedented access to film her conducting ceremony, healing her people and protecting her territory. In this episode we return to that footage to tell the story of this powerful medicine wom...