Standing on Sacred Ground

Summary

In 40 years of filmmaking, I have explored indigenous peoples' relationship to sacred places threatened by extractive industries spawned by a culture that values profiting, owning and collecting material artifacts of great worth. Archaeology – like filmmaking – has evolved in the last 40 years to include the concerns and perspectives of cultures all over the world, including indigenous people. Previous methods labeled Euro-centric, racist or exclusionary have been intensively questioned. If the earth is sacred, if a place is sacred, if a burial is sacred, digging and extracting are considered desecration by many vocal critics. If a ceremony is sacred, many native people feel filming the ceremony is sacrilege. There are now many archaeologists and filmmakers raised in indigenous traditions, and many "outsiders" who have worked with indigenous communities and built trust over decades. The dialogue about what is sacred, what should be respected and left alone, is one of the most important conversations on the planet. Understanding sacred places, apologizing for past injustices, recognition of history and pursuit of reconciliation will heal, restore balance and move us all forward on a better path.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Intersection of Sacredness and Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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