Fire & Ice -
standing on sacred ground

From Ethiopia to Peru, indigenous customs protect biodiversity on sacred lands under pressure from religious conflicts and climate change. In the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia, scientists confirm the benefits of traditional stewardship even as elders witness the decline of spiritual practices that have long protected trees, meadows and mountains. Tensions with evangelical Christians over a sacred meadow erupt into a riot. In the Peruvian Andes, the Q'eros, on a pilgrimage to a revered glacier, are driven from their ritual site by intolerant Catholics. Q'eros potato farmers face a more ominous foe: global warming is melting glaciers, their water source. Andes farmers, scientists and visiting Ethiopians struggle to adapt indigenous agriculture to the changing climate.

Duration: 56 minutes and 40 seconds

Episode Number: 103

No future air times were found for this episode.

About Standing On Sacred Ground:

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 verite scenes of tribal life allow indigenous people to tell their own stories-and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption.