Standing on Sacred Ground (2013) - full transcript

- We are born into a world
where we already have meaning.

We have meaning because we are
born with a particular kinship.

We're born with a name.

We're born with a spirit being
that will return to the land

when we die.

We know that.

I think the West hasn't
quite understood the need

to have a spirituality
that links to the land

upon which they live.

- Around the world,
indigenous people

fight for their
islands of sanctuary,



where restoration of the
environment and culture

go hand in hand.

- We can live on the
land like nobody does.

How come we live this long,
and the Australian government

is still running around
trying to kill us off?

In Northern Australia,
aboriginal clans

confront a mining boom
and fight to establish

Indigenous Protected Areas.

And native Hawaiians
restore an island regained

after 50 years of bombing.

- We had to challenge US
control over this land

with continued occupation
in the face of the military.

- If we can fight the
most powerful armed force

the world has ever
known and win,



the possibilities are endless
for other indigenous peoples

throughout the world.

- Australia's
Northern Territory is

marked by conflicts
over aboriginal lands,

a mine on the McArthur River,
the birthplace of the Land

Rights Movement on the Gove
Peninsula, and in Arnhem Land,

reclaimed country now under
indigenous management.

Unseen by Western
eyes, songlines

have guided aboriginal
cultures since the era

of creation, the Dream Time.

- The land tracts
around the Gove region

are based on what we called
songlines, or gudyega.

And that gudyega tells
the story like a map.

It's the singing of
the map of the country.

So when a person would
walk across country,

they would sing that country,
and they would name that tree,

and they would name that river,
and that would name that rock.

That way, there was a
sense of knowing, well,

this is where I am.

I'm not lost.

I can see that sacred
site over there.

- European humans have been
on the Australian continent

only for about 200 years.

There's absolutely clear
archaeological evidence

that Aboriginal people have
been here for 50,000 years.

It's the longest
continuous existing culture

we know about on planet.

And if you look around the
world where nature is still

in plenty, everywhere
in those lands,

there are traditional people.

- The natural ecosystem
still exists here,

and that's why it's healthy,
and the people are healthy.

Countries are healthy.

- The Arnhem Land
Plateau is part

of the biggest, oldest,
and most diverse

tropical savanna in the world.

In the last century, the
plateau was abandoned

by an essential species.

People left Arnhem Land, lured
by missions and white towns

and the promise of
protection from vigilantes.

After a half century of
exile, Gunwinggu people

have come back.

Wamud Namok was the visionary
artist who led his people back

to Arnhem Land, where he
lived as a child, sheltered

under rock snow covered
in his own paintings

and those thousands
of years old.

- It's a spiritual country when
we look at the whole landscape.

People may think,
it's an ordinary hill,

an ordinary rock.

It's an object that is
sacred to our understanding.

- His last wish start trying
to bring people back and work

in their own country.

It's been done from
thousands of years.

- In the hunter-gatherer
tradition,

aboriginal stewards of the land
find food everywhere and teach

younger generations how to care
for species like the sugar bag,

a bee that makes hives in trees.

- For 50,000 years, every
plant and animal species

that we see around
us today coexisted

with aboriginal people.

So for a start, they must have
been doing something right.

- Wamud Namok lived
long enough to see

his homeland officially
recognized as an Indigenous

Protected Area.

Land management
decisions are once again

made by clan elders who have
reintroduced traditional ways

of taking care of country.

Early-season
controlled burns thin

undergrowth without
damaging big trees

and prevent catastrophic
wildfires later in the season.

- The great accomplishment of
Aboriginal people was to learn

how to tame this fire-prone
continent by the intelligent

use of fire.

And when the British
came, what they found

were park-like expanses of
lightly wooded pastures,

and they thought that
they'd found Eden.

And they thought it was natural.

But it wasn't natural.

It was a human-made landscape.

And in 1770, Captain Cook
declared the East Coast

of Australia British possession.

And thereafter,
according to British law,

Aboriginal people were no
longer the owners of their land.

The Anglican chaplain
to the colony

declared that Aboriginal
people did not have souls.

And this view justified
the various attempts

to eliminate local populations.

- The English saw Australia as
Terra nullius, No Man's Land,

belonging to no one.

The newcomers were
blind to thousands

of sacred natural sites
revered by Aboriginal people

as the dwelling places of spirit
beings from an ancient past.

Aboriginal defenders
of their country

were massacred or imprisoned.

- European powers
declared ownership

over other people's lands
and enslaved peoples

around the world
or destroyed them.

Modern Australia is the
result of that history.

- Stolen generations
of children were

given to mission schools
or white families.

Until the mid-1960s,
Aboriginal people

were governed under
wildlife laws.

- They simply couldn't believe
that these primitives, as they

called us, had a religion,
and that the religion was

based on attachment to places
imbued with ancestral beings.

- The Western mind is linked to
this private property notion.

It's an absolutely
diabolical concept

to think that our
relationship to that land

is extinguished because
some Western law says.

That is madness, but our
country has done that.

- No mining on sacred sights!

- The Land Rights
movement in Australia

was triggered by
mining on sacred sites.

It began in the 1960s with
a petition demanding respect

for Aboriginal law
painted on tree bark.

Lawsuits and a
prolonged occupation

of the capital at
Canberra followed.

In 1976, Australia's
Northern Territory

made history by enacting
the world's first law

to protect indigenous
rights to sacred ground,

but conflicts persist.

The McArthur River is
an important wildlife

and conservation area, from
the dry country to the estuary.

In the last decade, the islands
at the mouth of the river

were returned to Aboriginal
clans once again.

The family of Steve
Johnston still

lives on Saltwater
Tucker, food from the sea.

But mining threatens
the marine habitat.

60 miles upstream, the
McArthur River Mine

extracts zinc from one of
the world's largest deposits

and sells most of it to
China for rust-proofing steel

and products from
cars and bridges

to office towers and warships.

For 20 years,
locals have worried

about the environmental
impacts of extracting

lead and zinc in the
floodplain of a tropical river.

- In 2001, there was a
big flood in the river.

We had a good wet that
year, and the tiling dams

at the mine site burst their
walls and came down the river.

There were thousands of dead
fish out in the bay here.

- What do you think's
killing the mangrove?

- Well, I think it must be
the poison from the mine.

- Two years after the big flood,
global mining giant Xstrata

acquired the
McArthur River Mine,

and a plan was announced to
convert underground tunnels

into an open pit, a
less expensive way

to unearth the minerals.

But the zinc deposit is directly
under the McArthur River.

Xstrata's solution-- move
the river, an ancient pathway

created by the rainbow serpent.

- In the dreaming,
the rainbow serpent

journeyed north,
conjuring big storms

and carving a broad and
winding river in the raw Earth.

Sing to the river.

Sing to country.

Country will hear.

But beware.

The one who enforces the
law is always watching.

The spirit of the
rainbow serpent

still lives in the water.

- It has been the river of
life, a source of water and food

and enjoyment for thousands
and thousands of years.

But it's also got an even more
significant role in Aboriginal

culture, and that is the sense
of spirituality and association

with the river through the
gudyega of the rainbow serpent

because it's the
rainbow serpent that

weaves its way
across the country

and creates the country.

It is powerful, and it needs to
be treated with much respect.

Malarndirri McCarthy represented
the McArthur River area

in the Northern
Territory parliament.

With other officials,
she came to Borroloola

to hear local concerns
about the mining plan.

- That is the tail
of the rainbow snake,

and they're going to
cut off that tail.

Why don't you dig up
at Aboriginal sites?

That's why we're
losing our culture.

- There are no sacred sites
affected by this mine,

and that's the report we've got,
and we have to listen to that.

- One of the first things
we did when we started off

for the proposal for the
open pit at McArthur River

was to identify all the
cultural sites around the area.

The Gundanji people
came up and went

through their sites
of significance,

and we've obtained the
Aboriginal area protection

certificates for the
works that we want to do.

And there's no sacred sites
affected, as far as they're

concerned.

- I think the mine can
be the economic generator

of the region.

We've never had anything
like that before.

Mining is one of
those industries

that can link in with a
rural tradition like ours.

At the moment, it's
television, grog, drugs,

that is capturing a
lot of our people.

The mine can give the Aboriginal
people here a normal life,

as is possible out here.

- For the first 15
years of operation,

the mine paid no royalties
and received millions

in government subsidies.

Most employees were flown in.

Recently, Xstrata has
hired some local workers

and has started contributing
to a community fund.

Contaminants released
by earlier floods

weren't documented by the
mine or the government,

but independent monitoring of
water quality is now required.

- I was born across
the river there.

So we have a stake in what
comes downstream from the mine,

and it's been stated that
the water is poisoned here.

And that's totally wrong.

- They say we can't
eat the mussels.

We can't eat the oysters.

So that's coming from doctors.

They reckon there's too
much heavy metals in them.

- Human health depends on the
health of the land and water.

But aboriginal culture also
depends on respect for the land

as the dwelling
place of the sacred.

And now, this line here is the
rainbow serpent coming down

the McArthur.

There is drilling
tracks right up

to the headwaters
of the McArthur,

all the way from Borroloola
to McArthur Mine itself.

- Aboriginal people who follow
the old traditions believe

that the most
important sites are

the places where the ancestral
beings remain in their place.

That's where they live, and
they live there forever.

There's always a set of rules
about how one approaches

rainbow serpent places.

So for instance,
one must go with

a senior traditional owner.

- Block your sacred
site, or you'll be sick.

- Senior traditional
owner Harry Lansen

was not one of Xstrata's
paid consultants.

- They new you were the
right person to see,

but they were
working around him,

working around him every time.

They had no right to
tell us what to do.

It's our country.

It's our land right in there.

- When Gundanji families tried
to visit their sacred sites

near the McArthur
River Mine, they

were blocked by
company personnel

and their aboriginal
consultants and threatened

with arrest for trespassing.

- We couldn't get
back in there today.

That really hurt.

They came in with two vehicles
to stop us and a chopper.

- Xstrata's request to move
the McArthur River was denied,

but mining company
bulldozers broke ground

on the river diversion anyway.

So aboriginal custodians
sued, and the court

ruled in their favor.

- It was a win for the
Aboriginal people in the Gove

region.

And on that day when the
judge made the announcement,

all work on the
expansion plan had

to stop because it was illegal.

- They were beaten in
the court, but then they

just turned around and
legislated the day after

and made new rules.

- Today, government has
decided to legislate

to ensure the continued
operation of the open cut

section of the
McArthur River Mine.

There's hundreds of jobs there,
and Cabinet made a decision

based on a lot of facts
that we had before us,

and this is the most
efficient way to move.

- What are you going to say
to the traditional owners

about the river?

When are you going to tell the
traditional owners, Claire?

- We're all together.

We must fight this thing.

This ground here, look.

It belongs to our country.

Over here, they will damage
our country the wrong way.

They're frightened to show us.

We will start as one, and
we will finish as one.

- With bulldozers at work
rechanneling the sacred river,

a delegation of elders
traveled 17 hours to Darwin

to protest government
collusion with industry.

- They crushed our sacred site.

They never listened to
aboriginal people, elders,

senior elders.

They've been stomped on.

So it's time for them to stand
up and say, hey, you're not

doing this to me anymore.

- Our people had taken a
government and a company

to court and had won and
felt vindicated by the win

and then felt
absolutely demoralized

when goalposts were
being moved again.

- We're up here to say
no to the people that

are trying to destroy our way of
life boy cutting up the river,

diverting it, digging the holes.

And they don't realize
what they are doing to us.

It's the river that keeps
us going, keep fighting.

- Mining is alive and
well in the territories.

- So is our commitment as a
territory to our environment.

- If you cut the
McArthur River, you

are cutting the rainbow serpent,
and there is a great sense

of fear that comes from that.

It is a relationship
with the river

that indigenous people want so
much for non-aboriginal people

to understand and respect
and that no amount of money

can take the place of something
that has been within the family

for thousands and
thousands of years.

- The McArthur River now
runs in a diversion channel.

Xstrata plans to expand
again, this time doubling

the size of the mine.

- We have to live in a
framework, constantly trying

to defend land and sacred place
that governments and developers

want to extinguish.

And so when we come to the
country, it's important for us

to wake it up and remind
that we haven't neglected it.

We haven't forgotten.

That we are still part
of that, and we need

the country to look after us.

- Called by the sound of
the didgeridoo, or yaducky,

clans unite at the Garma
festival, an annual celebration

at the site where the
ancient instrument was first

brought into being.

The festival inspires
cultural dialogue

and brings economic
benefits from ecotourism.

- This is the last frontier of
Aboriginal people still hanging

on to the culture and law and
languages and sacred sites.

We are people of the land.

We love our land.

We sit down, and we
don't play politics.

Our law is here to stay.

- Galarrwuy Yunupingu
has defended sacred sites

from mining for 50 years since
he helped his father write

the first bark petition.

His clan territory
on the Gove peninsula

is the birthplace of
the Land Rights movement

and is now an Indigenous
Protected Area.

Under the dance
ground lies bauxite,

coveted by the mining industry.

- When white man sees the
land, they also a dollar sign.

I will never give away
my land for dollars.

That's my practice, to be able
to pass it on to my little ones

so that the song
cycle must continue.

Whether it is in a dance,
whether it is in a song,

it's all related
back to the things

you find on and in the land.

- One of the great sorrows,
if you like, of modern life

is the extent to which
modern urban humans

are so dissociated
from the natural world.

So when I talk to aboriginal
people about their relationship

to an animal, they can
in the same sentence

talk about how
tasty it is to eat.

- It's really good
for your body.

- And the responsibilities
that they have to it.

And I think this
is where we have

to get if we want to
have a rich natural world

to leave to future generations.

- And I think if we can get the
Western people to understand

that they're born inside this
world not as astronauts that

have landed from some
other alien place,

then I think there'll be
a lot more harmony in how

we look after the globe.

- This was Mahatma
Gandhi's idea.

We belong to the land.

We are not the
owners of the land.

We are the friends of the land,
like friends of the Earth.

- In this recovery of our
humanity as indigenous peoples

where we rid ourselves of
the cloaks of Christianity

or the cloaks of
consumerism and remember

who we were supposed to be, it
is important to be reverent.

- When you have a sacred place,
it's not exactly like a church,

and it's not like
a national park.

It's a place that raises
the level of awareness

about the mystery and power
and possibility and joy

that is present in life.

You know who you are because you
are in contact with this place.

- So if there is something
that we have to relearn,

it's the idea of sharing
and being responsible.

And to learn, you
have to have teachers,

and who's your teacher?

The teacher is nature.

- The Hawaiians honored
the life forces of nature

and these various
energy forms as deities.

Christianity had severed
that relationship of our soul

to the land, which is really
the heart of our culture

here in Hawaii.

- Most of us grew
up loving the land.

We hunt, and we
fish, and we gather.

Different places where we know
that the ancestors are from--

we worship.

That is all part
of being Hawaiian.

Take care of land.

Land takes care of you.

- Guided by stars, early
Hawaiians sail double-hulled

canoes across the Pacific,
headed for the smallest

of eight Hawaiian Islands.

Kauna Loa Kaho Olawe, in the
center of the island chain,

was a place to teach navigation.

Off limits for 50 years
of weapons testing,

Kaho Olawe has once again
become a place of learning

and a refuge considered
sacred from its highest peaks

to the depths of
the ocean around it.

- I'm always asking
myself the question,

is Kaho Olawe really
a sacred place?

It's been always on my mind.

What is sacred?

How does sacred
fit into an island?

- For a lot of Hawaiians,
if you come here,

you get some direction.

But it also helps you to
navigate not only on the ocean,

but in your life.

- Kauna Loa is the
ancient men of the island.

It's one of the four
major Polynesian gods,

and it's the god of the ocean
and everything in the ocean.

This is his realm.

- Kaho Olawe gave us
the spiritual connection

to our ancestors and to
our spiritual beliefs,

and we were able to
call back our gods.

- When Christianity
came to Hawaii,

a new god was welcomed into
the pantheon worshipped

by Hawaiians, but missionaries
said the old gods must die,

and merchants replaced communal
sharing with a profit system.

Native Hawaiians who had
been rich in land and culture

became the poorest
people in the islands.

In 1893, three businessmen
overthrew the government

and imprisoned the queen with
the help of the US military.

Hawaiian lands were seized,
and the language was banned.

American Naval power found a
permanent home in the Pacific

and eventually set sights
on the island of Kaho Olawe.

- The character of the
island is still alive,

and yet this island
is being bombarded.

We all experienced the
loud noises and vibrations

of the bombs.

We could see the dust
coming up every so often

during a military exercise.

Wiped off, wipe out.

A disregard for nature.

- The day after Japan bombed
Pearl Harbor, the United States

declared war.

It also declared martial
law over all Hawaii.

- And the island of Kaho
Olawe was taken over

under military law.

It was a weapons test range.

Every major amphibious
battle in the Pacific

was first practiced
on Kaho Olawe.

- And all of this, what
the people of Hawaii

supported because we were
so fearful of Japan invading

Hawaii.

- This island is off limits,
so you can't go there.

People accepted that for
a long period of time.

It wasn't until that era of
the late '60s, early '70s

that people started questioning,
why can't I go there?

My ancestors used to go there.

How come I can't go there today?

- It was the era of the protests
against the war in Vietnam.

It was the era of
Wounded Knee, Alcatraz.

It was the era of
a lot of unrest.

- Hawaiians were not all happy
natives playing music, dancing

the hula, being Beach
Boys, and it was time

that we began to do
something to challenge

US control over Hawaii.

- The real spiritual
and inspirational leader

at the time was George Helm.

He had the vision of Kaho
Olawe becoming a place

to get back to our
roots as Hawaiians.

- The culture exists only
if the life of the land

is perpetuated in righteousness.

- George Helm and the
new activist group

Protect Kaho Olawe
Ohana, or family,

launched a grassroots
campaign to stop the bombing.

- This organization see that
Kaho Olawe is protected.

With that, we'll fight
the military, politicians,

different ways of thinking.

- It was taking on the
power structure, the largest

naval force in the
world, and the only thing

that we knew to end the
bombing was occupy the island.

- People showed up
from all the islands,

got on boats to occupy
it, to demand justice

for native Hawaiians.

- And Coast Guard was there
to intercept and confiscate

whatever boats were to land.

- So all the boats turned
around at that point,

except one boat made it through.

- Those who landed
were arrested,

except for Walter
Ritte and Emmett

Aluli, who managed to
go into the back lands

and begin to explore the island.

- As you walked
up to the summit,

you saw more and more
dumping of ordnance.

Whether they exploded or not,
they were all over the place.

I mean, it was
just an ugly scene,

but yet there was
beauty in the land.

Kaho Olawe was talking to us.

The voices-- we now called
the voice of Kauna Loa.

- And so Walter and
Emmett were there

on the island for two nights
before they were picked up

by the military and arrested.

- And we worried.

I mean, I worried.

For me personally,
it was a felony.

I would not be able
to practice medicine.

- Emmett Aluli and
George Helm fought back

by suing the US Navy for
violating environmental laws.

- This is the seed today
of a new revolution.

The kind of revolution
we're talking about

is one of consciousness,
awareness, facts, figures.

- I mean this is all
occurring intensely

and gets more intense
when George Helm and Kimo

Mitchell disappear.

- They went to Kaho Olawe,
and there was a big storm.

Gale-force winds
and huge swells.

- The story that
George and chemo

disappeared on a
broken surfboard trying

to leave Kaho Olawe.

- People didn't really
honestly believe

that they would have done that.

- But did they drown?

Did the sharks take them?

- There's other
thoughts that it was

in the interests of many
powers to do away with George,

and that they found
the opportune moment.

- Their bones, their bodies,
their clothes were never found.

We still don't know why,
but it's the feeling

from within that they were
assassinated because it

was the most powerful
movement that Hawaii has ever

seen in 100 years.

- I look at George and
Kimo and all of the Kahuna

who have given so
much for this island

and have passed on
as guides for us now.

They have laid the path down.

They have laid their life down.

A certain time, we
needed a fighter.

Now, we need healers.

- The Protect Kaho Olawe Ohana
was granted regular access

to the island in 1980, though it
took another decade of lawsuits

before a presidential order
and congressional action

ended the bombing.

Over three decades,
thousands of volunteers

have come ashore with the
native Hawaiian activists.

- We need to remind
everybody that we

have a kuliana, responsibility
to come back and heal

the island, and that's what
we do through restoration,

through planting, through making
sure that the sacred sites are

protected.

Just coming here
giving our blood,

sweat, and tears to the island.

- It's the least we can
do to basically continue

on the legacy of our family
and friends who back then

in the '70s risked so much
of their time and for some,

even their lives.

- There's thousands
of other Hawaiians

out there that we want
to remind them, hey,

we are a proud nation.

We are a proud people.

We're not the lazy ones.

We're not the ones that
should be the highest

rate in the prisons.

We're not the ones that
should be the highest

rate of teen pregnancy.

We're in all of those
bad categories now,

and we've got to
move out of that.

And part of that is, you have to
understand where we come from.

Who are our ancestors?

- We purposely bring groups
from different generations,

from different vocations to
live as a family, as an Ohana.

Life is coming.

This island was never dead.

It was abused.

There was misused.

- As people come to Kaho Olawe,
we watch them, check them out,

laugh with them, look at their
talents, and they surface.

- Ohana is an extended
family, not a nuclear family,

and it's multigenerational, made
up of grandparents, parents,

and children and inclusive
of those who've passed on

and those yet to come.

- Our commitment in the
Protect Kaho Olawe Ohana

is not so much to each
other as to the island.

We become an Ohana to each
other because we are all

connected to this island.

- We believe that we can call
up on the spirits to help us.

We can regain those ancestral
memories if we observe

and if we do the ceremonies
and if we sweat on the land

to repair it.

- They are the
people of the island.

They are the culture
practitioners.

They are the people
who are doing

these traditional
Hawaiian practices.

They are the ones who are
doing the spiritual worship.

They're the ones who are
creating this way of life

on Kaho Olawe.

- So what is UXO?

It's on unexploded ordnance.

Again, Kaho Olawe was
bombed for almost 50 years.

We'll find a lot of stuff on
our roads, trails, footpaths,

and riverbeds.

If you guys see metal
objects, shiny stuff,

if you don't know what
that is, don't touch it.

- 50-caliber casing.

We quite literally
find UXO every time we

come out to the island.

We just have to have that
one that's in the trail

to do you some harm.

The reason why there's so
many unexploded ordnance left

is because back in
the day, they were

figuring on a 30% dud ratio.

So for every 100 bombs that
you dropped, 30 of those

weren't going to go off.

- I don't think people think
about the remnants of war

and what it means after
you leave a war zone.

What do you leave behind?

- The navy's cleanup
lasted 10 years

and cost taxpayers $400 million.

It wasn't enough.

Live ordnance still
hides under the surface.

A quarter of the island
was not cleared at all.

- If you guys see
this, you've got

to tell Mommy or Daddy
or aunties or uncles.

- No visitors have been
injured, but the risk remains.

- There are still
bombs out there.

The cleanup was as
much as they could do

and as much as
Congress could afford.

- This crater was formed by
a massive explosion which

fractured the island's aquifer,
complicating the effort

to restore native plants.

- We have no water.

There's no running
water on the island,

so we have to be creative
in how to capture water

that comes from the heavens.

- The plants that live here
are really hardy, tough plants

because of the environment, just
like the people who come here.

We're going off of aloha aina
and the love for this place.

That's what we're running on.

That's our fuel.

But are you completing
that exchange

by doing something so the
land is able to love you back?

That's what you want, right?

- Ecological restoration
here requires extra caution

because of unexploded ordnance.

Respect for the land's spiritual
values is also essential.

Volunteers are recreating
a pilgrimage trail

to circle the island.

- The auna loa means
the long trail.

Our ancestors-- they would start
this path for us to follow,

and it's our turn now to
keep on going with this.

We paved this path, so for
our family, our children where

we get kids, they
can have something

that they can actually
look at and follow.

- Kaho Olawe has always
been a training ground.

For the generation
today, they're

learning now about
their cultural past,

about their ancestors,
and who they are.

But also, at the
same time, they're

learning about
technology, science,

but to keep their foot
grounded in the past.

- In the autumn, the sun moves
from the shining road of Kaune

into Kaho Olawe's depths.

At the equinox, when day and
night are perfectly balanced,

the two gods share the sun.

That is a time to
observe and chant,

to entice the wet
season to begin.

- So this shrine, Uncle Harry
said it was the kaune Kauna Loa

rocks.

So one represented
kaune and one Kauna Loa,

and he said it was used to
observe the rising of the sun.

The site has its
own protective mana

that it wasn't destroyed
during the military period.

- We had the
opportunity to come here

like no other island in Hawaii
and begin repairing the place

and during the ceremonies.

We'll learn together on how to
make sure that this survives

the test of erosion and time.

- Regaining the island
sparked a Hawaiian Renaissance

that also revived the language.

- One of the most
meaningful things

that we do when we're on island
is at the end of the day,

we come together and kuu kau
kuu kau, or we talk story.

- We need to hear the
meaning of sacredness,

why you come to Kaho Olawe.

- I'll take a step forward
and say the planet is sacred.

Every single piece
of land, whether it's

in Africa or Siberia or America,
whatever you want to say.

There it is, sacred.

But it's just at another level.

Kaho Olawe is at a
pretty high level.

Waikiki is pretty low.

- I feel challenged
to figure out

how to convince the
general public that we

need to commit resources
to keep Kaho Olawe sacred.

- Kaho Olawe is the first
land regained by Hawaiians

since the US overthrow in 1893.

The state of Hawaii
now holds the island

in trust for a future
sovereign entity.

By statute, Kaho Olawe is
protected from commercialism.

But without revenue
from commerce or taxes,

continued restoration
is in jeopardy,

as federal cleanup
funding runs out.

- There is a price tag
to the entire restoration

of Kaho Olawe.

How do we pay for that price
tag but at the same time

keeping the sanctity
of the island intact?

- The question
comes about, do we

need to open up commercialism?

For me, I say no.

In the beginning, the people
who said, no commercialism.

I think that was a
very good decision.

If you were coming here,
if it wasn't for money.

- This island belongs
to the people of Hawaii,

and it's a Hawaiian
cultural reserve.

And that doesn't mean that it's
reserved just for Hawaiians,

but it means it is the
place for the practice

of Hawaiian culture.

- And we want it not only just
protected as a natural area

reserve, but we want the
indigenous relationship

of the land protected.

Our uniqueness is that
the people of Hawaii

had made that commitment.

- This little seed is going
to make a big plant like this.

This place still needs
people to take care

of war aina, this sacred land.

It's not just restoration.

It's so much more than that.

It's restoring a place, and
it's restoring a people.

- Another way we try
to malama Kaho Olawe

is we have the rain ceremony
where we call the rains.

We're doing what our ancestors
did to remind the rain,

to remind the wind that you
have to come to Kaho Olawe.

Please come to Kaho Olawe and
bring those rains from mowe.

- Just the thought
aloha aina is simple.

Aloha aina.

Love the land.

Everybody who comes here
is on that same sense

of purpose and sacredness.

I see magic happen here.

- They take the
lessons of Kaho Olawe.

They take the lessons that
they learn from each other back

to their homes on different
islands, back to the continent,

back to different
parts of the world,

and they can remember
what Aloha aina is

and what that means to love
the place, to love their land,

to listen for the messages,
to share, to be kind,

to remember those very simple
truths and very simple values

that we as human beings, in our
guts, know we should be doing.

- Kaho Olawe is a catalyst.

- Kaho Olawe is going to be
the testing ground for us.

- We've got much going
for us as Hawaiians.

From almost losing
everything, we've

been able to reclaim some land.

We now have an island that can
teach to generations ongoing

without interference.

- For indigenous people,
the most important thing

is relationship.

We value relationship
way beyond anything else.

Relationship to be close,
to be next to the tree,

to be next to the water,
to be next to the Earth.

- Most of the time,
when you ask people,

what is the opposite of love?

They will say hate.

But the opposite of
love is indifference.

People are indifferent
to the Earth.

What we have in front
of us is an enterprise

to repair indifference
on a vast scale

and turn it into a
loving relationship.

- In this worldwide
effort, isolated cultures

show the way for all humanity to
meet our obligation to protect

the life of the land.

- We have to have a
reverence for the Earth.

God is not out of this world in
the sky controlling the world.

Nature is my god.

Earth is my goddess.

These holy, sacred
mountains and rivers--

they become my temples.

They become my prayer.

- Sacred places are like
spiritual recharge areas,

where we are always not
only careful, but prayerful.

No other creatures have
free will like we do.

We have the responsibility
to be righteous.

Bare feet in the
sand, we each arrive

as pilgrims on the
islands of our ancestors,

and we listen for the
voice of the land.

I hear the voice now.

The prayer is free.

It is lifted it has flown.