An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
Posted on November 16, 2018 | 1 Comment -
KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands Pipelines
Posted on November 12, 2018 | 1 Comment -
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 1 Comment -
Confronting Wildfire: Retrofit Communities, Not Forests
Posted on September 17, 2018 | 1 Comment -
San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dangers Compound
Posted on September 4, 2018 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
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indigenous peoples Archive
KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands Pipelines
Posted on November 12, 2018 | 1 CommentA federal judge blocked the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline in November 2018, saying the Trump administration’s justification for approving it last year was "incomplete," meaning it vacated for political effect the requirements of environmental law in the US. Idle No More and AIM leader Lydia Ponce reflects on her visits to the camps challenging tar sands pipelines to protect Mother Earth and Indigenous sovereignty.
Waste Colonization, Plastic Pollution and the Pacific Gyre
Posted on August 27, 2018 | 1 CommentHow do we confront the swirling gyres of plastic pollution dumped into our oceans? EcoJustice Radio on KPFK-Los Angeles examines the social and environmental implications of wasted resources, and follow two interrelated approaches to solving the problem from an indigenous woman doing exemplary work in New Zealand and an LA-based plastics pollution fighter who built a raft made of plastic junk and crossed the Pacific.
Dancing Devils of Venezuela Challenge US Consumer Culture
Posted on November 8, 2017 | No CommentsAn exhibition by artist Cristóbal Valecillos in Los Angeles invoked the Dancing Devils of Yare, a 400-year old Venezuelan tradition celebrating life, the triumph of good over evil, and renewal. His provocative interpretation of the diablo masks, hand-sculpted from repurposed waste materials, takes aim at culture and consumption in the US, a plea for overcoming.
Forest Spirits ‘Induce Confusion’ in Native Vancouver Island
Posted on April 12, 2017 | No CommentsFacing cultural genocide at the turn of the 1900s, the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) people's way of life in northern Vancouver Island were protected and preserved by the work of anthropologist Franz Boas and photographer Edward S. Curtis.
2017 Rose Parade: Up With the People, Down with the Pipeline
Posted on January 6, 2017 | No CommentsSouthern California Standing Rock is Everywhere Water Protectors crashed the 2017 Rose Parade in Pasadena, and set the tone for a year of unity and peaceful confrontation for the sacred waters of Mother Earth, in the age of The Orange One.
Leonard Peltier Survives in the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Posted on September 16, 2016 | No CommentsLeonard Peltier has been a political prisoner for 41 years. Amnesty International believes that the U.S. authorities should order his release from prison on humanitarian grounds and in the interests of justice. A recent letter from Leonard himself, and multiple documentaries tell the story.
Water is Life: Native Nations Stopping Dakota Access Pipeline
Posted on August 25, 2016 | 3 CommentsThe Lakota phrase, Mni Wiconi, Water is Life, has inspired a Native Nations protest against the recent approval and ongoing construction of the Dakota Access Fracked Oil Pipeline, that threatens all communities and ecosystems downstream. After military-style assaults on Native Water Protectors, construction has almost reached the Missouri River.
Traditional Healing Among the Highland Maya
Posted on August 2, 2016 | 1 CommentTraditional Mayan healers, bone-setters, herbal curanderos, and spiritual guides or shamans, provide good physical and mental health options for poor indigenous Guatemalans.
Ecuadorean Amazon Under Oil Assault to Service Chinese Debt
Posted on July 5, 2016 | No CommentsEcuadorean state capitalism has sacrificed significant tracts of one of the planet's most important biosphere reserves, Yasuni National Park in the Amazonian region, to a massive new oil drilling project. It threatens multiple indigenous territories and the area's biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.
Preserve Newport Banning Ranch as Sacred Archaeological Site Genga
Posted on May 12, 2016 | 4 CommentsNewport Beach's Banning Ranch, the site of a proposed mega commercial and residential development, is an extraordinary archaeological site. Once the site where an ancient Native American coastal village called Genga, a ritual and trading hub for both the Tongva and Acjachemen Native American Nations, existed for over a thousand years.
Rama People Fear End of Culture from Nicaraguan Interoceanic Canal
Posted on April 16, 2016 | No CommentsThe indigenous Rama people of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast speak out in a new documentary against an inter-oceanic canal which threatens their ancestral land, language, and traditional culture.
“Embrace of the Serpent” Film: Journey of Healing and Ethnobotany
Posted on April 11, 2016 | 2 CommentsEthnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, one of the most important plant explorers of the 20th century, served as a key inspiration in a recent film called "Embrace of the Serpent." In December 1941, Schultes entered the Amazon to study how indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. After nearly a decade of fieldwork, he made significant discoveries about the sacred hallucinogen ayahuasca. In total, Schultes would collect more than 24,000 species of plants including some 300 species new to Western science.
Berta Cáceres: Rebel Guardian of the Rivers, ¡Presente!
Posted on March 12, 2016 | 1 CommentBerta Cáceres was assassinated by Honduran government-backed death squads on March 3. She fought for indigenous peoples’ power and for control over their own territories. She was not destined to die of old age. She spoke too much truth to power.
Postcommodity’s ‘Repellent Fence’ Land Art Spans the U.S. Border
Posted on February 20, 2016 | 3 CommentsPostcommodity is a collective of American Indian artists from different backgrounds and mediums, combining to create giant musical instrument installations, video, sound and sculpture. Their Repellent Fence installation floated Scare-Eye Bird Repellent balloons over the border between Arizona and Sonora.
Kogi People’s Lesson From the Heart of the Mountain
Posted on January 22, 2016 | 1 CommentThe Kogi People of Colombia, through two separate documentaries, delivered a message of a sustainable interconnection with nature and community as a way to avert climate and ecological destruction.
Colombia: Stunning Indigenous Rock Art from Amazonia
Posted on September 2, 2015 | 1 CommentPrehistoric paintings on vertical rock faces in an Amazonian wilderness in Colombia were recently photographed and filmed for western eyes. The pretense of this British filmmaker as the "discoverer" of the paintings is of course ludicrous. The once populous Karijona Tribe most likely painted these masterpieces, and continue to live uncontacted in the vast rainforest, and anthropologists and explorers have studied the region for hundreds of years.
Jack Eidt on the Nicaraguan Canal and Trans-Amazonian Railway
Posted on June 9, 2015 | No CommentsJack Eidt of WilderUtopia spoke on the dangerous race for global control by the Chinese through mega-development projects such as the Gran Canal of Nicaragua and the Trans-Amazonian Railway, both with major human rights, ecological, and indigenous sovereignty consequences.
Silencing the Thunder: Bison Management in Yellowstone
Posted on March 18, 2015 | 1 CommentThe amazing bison, revered by native societies, survives despite its continued sacrifice at the demand of the cattle industry. While slaughter continues at the borders of Yellowstone National Park, bison managers consider alternative management policies. Also watch the documentary, "Silencing the Thunder."
Peyote Guardians: The Huichol Struggle of Life and Spirit
Posted on August 18, 2014 | 2 CommentsTwo recent documentary films chronicle the struggle of the Huichol or Wixárika People to protect their culture and spiritual connection with the ancestors, through the journey to Wirikuta, where peyote grows, now threatened by mining and development interests.
Thirty-Four Colombian Tribes Face Extinction
Posted on June 1, 2014 | 4 CommentsThe Nukak People of Colombia have been forced from their homes by illegal armed groups, in the latest attack against the country’s most recently-contacted tribe. Mining, palm oil, cattle ranching and coca threaten the majority of the country's 102 indigenous communities.
Shoshone Myth: Wolf Challenges the Euro-American “Iron-Man”
Posted on March 13, 2014 | 1 CommentNorthern Shoshone Myth on how the Wolf, father of the native people, defeated the white-man's father “Iron-Man,” documented by Robert Harry Lowie in 1909.
Hear the Buffalo – A Film By Gene Bernofsky
Posted on March 12, 2014 | 1 CommentHear the Buffalo is a heartfelt plea to preserve the last wild bison roaming Yellowstone National Park, their significance in Native American culture, and the ongoing injustices they experience by attempts to manage populations outside the park in Montana.
Chumash Elder Speaks on Healing Humanity and the Climate
Posted on February 23, 2014 | 4 CommentsArt Cisneros is a Chumash elder and firekeeper. The Chumash People are the original native peoples of the central California Coast. Art holds the sacred space for their annual Tomol crossing to Limu on the Channel Islands. Lately, he has undertaken a series of ceremonies focused on healing humanity's relationship with the climate, responding to the ongoing drought and extreme weather, prayers that he shared with the people at the Great March for Climate Action LA Launch on March 1, 2014, in the Port of Los Angeles.
Pamparios: A Trip with the Huicholes to Collect Peyote
Posted on December 16, 2013 | 5 CommentsWatch the full documentary on the Huichol journey to Wirikuta, where they travel every year to collect peyote. The pilgrimage take place with the intention to return to where life originated and heal oneself and the community.
Blessing for La Moskitia, A Culture and Land in Transition
Posted on November 23, 2013 | 2 CommentsHistorically a roadless fishing port with little development nor electricity, Puerto Lempira has transformed into a boom-town, host to drug traffickers, nearby military bases, and oil and gas development. In an effort to overcome this adversity, we participated in a blessing for the people and their land and culture in transition, directed by a local Miskitu sukya, or healer, and members of the community.
