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Official Selection: Dreamspeakers International Film FestivalOfficial Selection: Mumbai International Film FestivalOfficial Selection: Columbus International Film & Video FestivalOfficial Selection: NewBeijing International Film FestivalOfficial Selection: GreenReel Environmental Film FestivalOfficial Selection: Chashama Film FestivalOfficial Selection: Moondance International Film FestivalNEPTUNE AWARD TECHQUA IKACHI is at long last available on DVD from www.venicevisionarymedia.net Part One: history documentary AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI (10 minutes)Part Two: prophecy docudrama EARTH SPIRIT (33 minutes)
burma
sudan
new mexico
canada
nigeria
columbia
ecuador
jamaica
The prophecy of the Hopi, the Dineh, and others forsees that exploitation of the earth will bring humanity to doom. Worldwide protests against mining and drilling on lands of indigenous peoples go unreported in America. We are focused with Al Gore on our own risks because our environment is being polluted, threatening our health and well-being--but few of us concern ourselves with the health or well-being of those suffering right this moment at the sources of our energy and metals. But with global warming, ultimately we all go down together.In AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI (10 minutes), a Hopi farmer tells of his travels from reservation to government school to hard times to war and back home to appreciation of traditional life close to nature. The philosophy calls on people to follow the natural way.
Among other sites of recent protest demonstrations are Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Florida, the Dakotas, Alaska, Canada, Burma, Columbia,, Indonesia, Tibet, the Arctic, Mexico, Madagascar, the Philippines, Russia, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Australia, Thailand, India, and thousands of demonstrations in China. Many others are not reported. Civil war over oil has broken out in Sudan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, mass murder in Ethiopa. More than five million are dead in the Congo from wars to take over the mining of metals. For detailed news reports from many of these scenes of conflict, please refer to the url list of web publications below at the foot of this website.
ORGANIZATIONSThere is no organizational link between these peoples. What they have in common is the despoiling of their lands for the profit of others. Some international and grassroots organizations are concerned, and here is a list of some websites(Please copy and paste in your browser bar, as we are not affiliated or linked to any of these organizations):: http://www.thehopiway.com http://www.blackmesais.orghttp://www.wsdp.org http://www.earthfirst.org http://www.greenpeace.org http://www.unpo.org http://www.treatycouncil.org.http://www.thehopiway.com/content/messages/techqua/techqua_ikachi.html
The Story behind the films AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI and EARTH SPIRITIn the late 1960s veterans of the civil rights movement organized the Committee for Traditional Indian Land and Life in Los Angeles with the purpose of aiding American Indian peoples struggling for self-determination. One conflict continuing to this day is the resistance in northern Arizona by Hopi and Dineh traditionals against mining of coal on their sacred Black Mesa. The center of this opposition was and is the traditional Hopi village of Hotevilla, founded in 1906 after a clash between Hopi traditionals and those "progressives" who decided to give up their traditions, convert to Christianity, and seek the material benefits of Western technology and industry. The traditionals were obliged to separate to preserve the old ways.Many indigenous peoples believe taking oil and minerals is a transgression on Mother Earth.
This scene of confrontation was a moment of truth for those in the civil rights movement. It was also the source of the idea for the film EARTH SPIRIT. To capitalist and communist alike, belief in the value of material progress had always been fundamental. Why would anyone resist progress How could anyone criticize progress?In 1970 the federal government brought in contractors to provide the first electric power to the village of Hotevilla. Power poles were trucked in, and heavy equipment arrived to clear the way for the installation. At this point a group of Hopi elders arrived on the scene to block the work. These old men lay down in the path of the bulldozers, ready to sacrifice their lives if necessary to prevent electric power from coming to their village. One ninety-year-old elder was injured and declined and passed away not long after.
What concerned the Hopi elders was the price to be paid.. In the traditional economy there was no money because it was not needed. Now the Hopi must find ways to get money. There are few jobs on the reservation other than working for the government or working for corporations extracting coal, oil, and uranium out of the land. The only source of money for many is to go on welfare. There would also be a price more costly than mere money. Like many indigenous peoples, the Hopi believe extractions from Mother Earth will lead to disaster. Their prophecy, like many others, foretells doom for those who forsake a natural way of life.During this period we shot our short AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI presenting the life and philosophy of a traditional. This black-and-white 16mm documentary was a finalist in the National Short Film Competition and was also selected as Best of Filmex at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition.Check it out at:www.indieflix.com.Buy TECHQUA IKACHI: ABORIGINAL WARNING on DVD from www.venicevisionarymedia.net.
The EARTH SPIRIT story The tale of the Spirit of Sacred Mesa is told by an elder. Some don't believe, but the facts do support the old man. It is the story of the working of the prophecy of the Hopi and other indigenous peoples as they protest modern greed.The old man says an ancient unseen spirit haunts mesa country in the high desert of the Southwest. Mother Earth is being raped by oil drilling and mineral mining. Mesa people believe this earth spirit is unhappy at what has been done to this land and its people According to ancient prophecy, the Spirit of Sacred Mesa might erupt in a rage that could destroy this world.
Tela, daughter of the late lamented leader of the mesa people, escaped from the harsh desert where she grew up. She left to seek a middle-class life in Los Angeles but found poverty and stress..
A way out of their financial crunch appears to Tela in the form of an offer by a mining company for mineral rights in the family land. She can take the money but finds herself fighting against her family and many of her people. Will the land be desecrated?Death and destruction will prove necessary to resolve these conflicts and leave the Spirit of Sacred Mesa at peace.The Earth Spirit character that appears as a dream in the story is not merely a movie device nor a superstition but also a reflection of science from the recently developed Gaia Theory: www.gaiatheory.org
DEDICATION
TECHQUA IKACHI: Aboriginal Warning is dedicated to Hopi elders James Kots, Helen Kots, David Monongye, on Nora Monongye, Thomas Banyacya, Carolyn Tawangyama, Ralph Tawangyama, and Dan Katchongva, The Hopi people knew how to be civil to others long before modern so-called civilization, which brought money and modern things but no peace. The Hopi had lived their quiet life in a difficult desert for a thousand years in peace.
Those elders requested a film be made about the Hopi prophecy. We shot the footage in our documentary short AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI, but the reservation police stopped us from filming the protest demonstrations there.. Elders were risking their lives to block the bulldozers, as in our EARTH SPIRIT film.. Those elders are gone now, and our docudrama mentions neither the Hopi nor the name Native American nor the name American Indian. As in modern expressionistic drama, as well as in classical drama of many cultures, the story and characters are representative--in this case, representative of similar stories and characters from many peoples around the world. Yet EARTH SPIRIT came into being because of those Hopi elders’ request and plays like events on the reservation and speaks the indigenous prophecy.
The protests demonstrations by the Hopi and Dineh persist to this day, as does the blackout on news photography there.We also remember Jose Andrews, who lived just long enough to give us the beautiful prayer to close the film.
TECHQUA IKACHI: Aboriginal Warning Education Edition DVD 43 minutesThe coming of global warming proves the aboriginal prophecy that mining and drilling will bring disaster. The Hopi prophecy was described to civil rights workers in 1970 and was presented as having originated before the founding of the thousand-year-old Hopi town of Oraibi. The impending global warming was unrecognized until the end of the twentieth century. No one but the aboriginal prophets saw any connection between mining and drilling the earth and causing global catastrophe. The Hopi words techqua ikachi stand for "land and life". Today that connection is proven scientific fact.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The Hopi elders changed my life. I had been in many civil rights demonstrations during the sixties, but nothing impacted me like the 80-year-old Hopi man throwing himself in front of a bulldozer, risking his life to stop electricity from coming to the last traditional Hopi village of Hotevilla. Capitalism and communism were competing savagely to prove which could better provide such modern conveniences to the most people. The Hopi traditionals were opting out of the game. They knew they would have to pay for those services by exploitation and pollution of their land.
The elders wanted a film about their prophecy warning against oil and mining. That was before 1970, and no one had ever heard of global warming, so no one but prophets knew of the connection with oil and coal and carbon..
Photography was prohibited at that scene on the Hopi reservation, so our documentary footage was limited, but the incident provided the nucleus of our docudrama film EARTH SPIRIT, where prophecy like that of the Hopi and other indigenous peoples warns against exploitation and pollution of their lands. Arizona has seen many decades of protests and demonstrations by the Hopi and Dineh against pollution of the land and ground water by uranium mining. Today those demonstrations are more frequent and growing stronger.
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Issues of James Kots’ newsletter TECHQUA IKACHI (“Land and Life”) can be found on the internet. http://www.thehopiway.com/content/messages/techqua/techqua_ikachi.html. James was co-creator for AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI.
We combined the two stories into a single film, as the docudrama did develop out of the short. We use that same slogan TECHQUA IKACHI also taken by our Committee for Traditional Indian Land and Life in the late sixties and early seventies.
The Hopi elders educated me, but by example. They never tried to teach nor evangelize their beliefs, but I saw while staying among them their hospitality and kindness. They endured many abuses of their hospitality but never reacted in anger. I found autobiographical accounts of Hopi childhood I learned their record of a thousand years of peace, which makes the records or so-called civilized societies look barbaric. The Hopi endured blazing hot summers and freezing winter storms in one of the harshest deserts to produce a society far more mellow than ours. But as the film indicates, money is persuasive. Most of the Hopi people appreciated the traditional point of view but, like most people everywhere, want what modern industry can provide.
Another eye-opener the Hopi elders gave me was their rejection of the democratic system of voting for a federally created Tribal Council. I came to agree with them that majority rule can be tyranny of the many over the few. Traditionals operate by consensus. Disagreements are worked out by compromise. They would go down into their underground kiva and not come back out until the matter was resolved to the agreement of all.
We were even motivated to become small farmers and did so for nearly ten years, but found like the Hopi, that family farming is an extremely tough way to make a living in the face of modern agribusiness.
CONTACT: This film is now available on DVD from wwwvenicevisionarymedia.net.with a bonus CD of production stills, cast,crew, study materials, news sources, hisorical sources, trailer, articles, director bio and statement.
NEWS REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Below is a sampling of website publications reporting mining protests by indigenous peoples (Please copy and paste in your browser bar, as we are not affiliated or linked to any of these publications): http://www.mcgillreport.org/genocide.htm [Ethiopia]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/980421/98042102.html [Philippines]
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/world/asia/02pakistan.html?ex=1301630400&en=b c5195902af514ae&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss [Pakistan]
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/10/13/100wir_a12indian001.cfm [Columbia]
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11614 [Jamaica]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5215424.stm [Honduras]
http://www.blackmesais.org/bigmtbackground.html [Arizona]
http://www.shundahai.org/bigmtbackground.html [Arizona]
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_35_40/ai_n6151718 [Appalachia]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/970907/97090703.html [Mexico]
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2930&purchase_type=ITM&item_id=0286- 25870843 [Mexico]
http://www.tulane.edu/~latinlib/RESTRICTED/Mexico_Update/1996_0205.txt [Mexico]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/5_08/1.html [RioTinto, Indonesia]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/news/riotinto000727.html [RioTinto, mining]
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/brazil/mining.htm [Brazil]
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2930&purchase_type=ITM&item_id=0286- 12660085 [Brazil]
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13190 [Venezuela]
http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/84.85eng/Brazil7615.htm [Brazil]
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/289380_brazil20.html [Brazil]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1836059,00.html [India]
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412967 [Colorado]
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19179/story.htm [Thailand]
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press582.htm [Chile]
http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/nov/06ucil.htm [India]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/4_15/3.html [Namibia]
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/21/alaska_natives_protest_arctic_oil_drilling/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+-- +Today's+paper+A+to+Z [Alaska]
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411299 [Arizona]
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03/sud0311.php [Sudan]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/sudan.html [Sudan]
http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/990331/99033104.html [Madagascar]
http://www.sakhalinindependent.com/IMAGES/oilandgas/indigenous_people_protest.htm [Russia]
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/news_updates/archive2004/art6915.html [Ecuador]
c [Canada]
http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/yucca/yuccahome.htm [Nevada]
http://www.tew.org/development/tibetan.oil.html [China]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091101681_pf.html[China]
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/26.htm [Sudan/China]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/archive?ArchiveId=19612 [Nigeria]
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engAFR440172006?open&of=eng-2f5 [Nigeria]
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines02/0717-03.htm [Nigeria]
http://www.pr-inside.com/u-s-court-of-appeals-again-sides-r95147.htm [Papua New Guinea]
Some background sources on oil and mining:
http://home.att.net/~newbooks/miningbooks.html [mining bibliography]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States [history]
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2001/109-10/focus.html [gold mining toxicity]
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1491 [gold mining pollution]
http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/1626 [uranium mining]
http://www.anawa.org.au/mining/problems.html [uranium mining risks]
http://www.crudeoilbiz.com/oil-industry-environmental.shtml [oil drilling risks]
http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports/AGA/EAGAGC00/?o=466384&u=14590552&l=812200 [uranium market]
And now American Indians are praying for their sacred sites threatened from exploitation for geothermal energy: http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item_print.php?item_id+1892&issue_id=96 Some of these news archives may expire from time to time.BOOK NOTE:The Young Adult novel LOOKING FOR THE REAL THING has been published and is available at www.publishamerica.com.A L.A. high school senior seeks a simpler future away from angry kids, stressed adults, monstrous schools, everyday violence, massive traffic, choking smog, sickening pollution, junk food--seeking a little peace, a little quiet, some connection to nature.The purpose of this book is to offer some comfort and support to those rare teenagers who feel alienated by pressure and stress from the relentless competition pursued in the schools, on television, in the news, books, films, radio, everywhere.Some kids are less worried about being left behind and more worried about being run over, and some might like the chance to slow down and step aside and stand back enough to think, what is it all about, and what is it all for? Some may even be aware and concerned our world could become uninhabitable for future generations if we do not simplify our consumption, which means reduce our competition and aggresssion. These teens are the few who may speak up. They are not slackers or rebels so much as they are confused and looking for a way out. Most teenagers never go to college. Many do not want to. Many do not want to wear suits and ties or drive two or three hours commuting every day. That does not mean they are lazy or gang members or delinquent or stoners. They can hate the tyranny of the testing obsession without hating the subjects tested. Some kids do not feel right going along with a mean system they do not like. Maybe they feel trapped. If such students are out there, this book is for them. Stay cool, kids!In the book, our hero has developed an aversion to stress, which leads him to want out of Los Angeles. He has felt that rush you can get from stress, but the side effects he feels and sees around him make him back off and hang back and seek to chill out his situation. While others pant and yearn for a bloody climax in a movie, he exits the theater. He is not with the raging ambitions and angry desires and frustrations of the masses of his schoolmates. He wants a quiet life out of the rush, working with others who want to make the world better. There are kids who feel that way, and this book seeks to encourage them.Most fall in with the competition compulsion. In school, it's all tests. Or go to a sports event--pro, college, high school, Little League--it is relentless. Just drive a car in traffic. All day, every day, drivers risk injury and even death to get one car up at the next stop light ahead. Capitalism is competition. And Communism is in competition with Capitalism. The whole world is hyper-competitive and obsessed with consumption. And competition is stress. So competition makes everybody stressed???Not necessarily so. Actually, people want to get stressed. The masses are so desperate for any pinch of joy that they get themselves off on whatever rush they can milk from their stress. Like the cheap thrill of beating out cars, evading an accident in a close call, or cutting in, instead of waiting one's turn. And like the pricey thrill of spending to overeat and over-consume. So they stress on to get what rushes they can manage in lilfe. Nobody has time for anything but more stress, so they have to get some charge out of it.. And take a drink, down a pill--to help keep it going!No! Stop! Sit! Meditate. This hyperactive physical world is not the only existence. We must kick the addiction to stress and consumption. Life can be good without them. And humanity must tone things down to survive.LOOKING FOR THE REAL THING by Alan Gorg at www.publishamerica.com.Here are some drawings by Corey, the hero of the book:
PURPOSE STATEMENTWe in America and the other industrialized nations need to focus beyond our own energy and environmental problems and also consider the sufferings of others—and not only in the Middle East. Higher gas prices, more smog and pollution, the threat of global warming, and war in the Middle
East make the production of oil a personal concern for all of us. We worry over the danger of accidents and radioactive contamination from nuclear energy. What few think about or even recognize, native peoples around the world are suffering pollution, impoverishment, even sickness and death, from exploitation of their lands by oil and mining interests getting energy and metals to sell to us..TECHQUA IKACHI: ABORIGINAL WARNING now available on DVD from www.venicevisionarymedia.net.with a bonus CD of study materials, historical and news sources, production notes and stills, a trailer.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL DOOMSDAY AHEAD FROM MININGIn the new book BIG COAL: THE DIRTY SECRET IN AMERICA'S ENERGY FUTURE by Jeff Goodell, the author points out that most of our energy comes from burning coal, not from oil nor nuclear, that all modern technology persists in depending on burning coal in essentially the same way as 150 years ago, polluting worse than oil, and that technology cannot solve the problem because developing more technology requires burning still more coal. His words sound like a manifestation of the prophecy of the Hopi and others, and as that prophecy says, the only solution is less dependence on coal and the technology which needs it. In other words, the solution is a more simple life. Sorry, Peabody Coal Company, but coal is Doom. The prophecy in TECHQUA IKACHI is more than a mere movie prophecy.In America, the burning is hidden. In China, the burning is in the cities.
http://www.truthout .org/issues_ 06/070507ED. shtml
750,000 a Year Killed by Chinese Pollution
By Richard McGregor
The Financial Times
Tuesday 02 July 2007
Beijing engineered the removal of nearly a third of a World Bank report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke "social unrest".
The report, produced in co-operation with Chinese government ministries over several years, found about 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities.
In EARTH SPIRIT (33 min.) indigenous people resist oil and mining interests seeking to exploit and pollute their land.. Like the Hopi farmer, they voice a prophecy warning against violating their natural way of life. A troubled city youth is drawn back home to defend the land of his ancestors. Tribe and family are split apart as traditionals blockade the main highway to protest mining and drilling.A trailer for TECHQUA IKACHI is at www.activistvideo.orgAt this very moment, confrontations over energy resources are being faced by indigenous peoples all around the world.
Long before the Dalai Lama or Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, there were the Hopi, the Peaceful People. They lived in peace on the high desert of what is now Arizona for over a thousand years before the European invasion. No other nation has approached such a record of peace. The history of the Hopi sets a spiritual example for a simple agricultural way of life which would control global warming and save civilization if only humanity could be restrained from the greed for getting more and more from this Earth.
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