Curator
— David N. M.Mbora, Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, Whittier College
Standing on Sacred Ground: Profit and Loss
From the rainforests of Papua New Guinea to Canada’s tar sands, Standing on Sacred Ground: Profit and Loss exposes industrial threats to native peoples’ health, livelihood, and cultural survival.

Curator
David N.M. Mbora, Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, Whittier College
Why I selected this film
I chose this film because it makes an important point about the high cost that native peoples have to pay to provide the industrial raw materials and fossil fuel energy that drive the economies of industrialized countries. The high costs, in the form of lost livelihoods and nasty health effects on the indigenous people, are often invisible to the residents of industrialized countries. In addition, the film highlights important grassroots efforts by the indigenous peoples to hold governments and industry accountable. Such environmental activism, I believe, is important because it empowers local peoples to pursue environmental justice.
Teacher's guide
Please see the teacher's guide for maps, background information and suggested subjects, questions and activities.
Synopsis
From the rainforests of Papua New Guinea to Canada’s tar sands, Profit and Loss exposes the industrial threats to native peoples’ health, livelihoods, and cultural survival. In PNG, a Chinese government–owned nickel mine violently relocated villagers to a taboo sacred mountain, because it makes an important point about the high cost that native peoples have to pay to provide the industrial raw materials and fossil fuel energy that drive the economies of industrialized countries. The built a new pipeline and refinery on contested clan land, and is dumping mining waste into the sea. In Alberta, First Nations people suffer from rare cancers as their traditional hunting grounds are strip-mined to unearth the world’s third-largest oil reserve. Indigenous peoples tell their own stories—and confront us with the ethical consequences of our culture of consumption. —Excerpted from the Standing on Sacred Ground website
The environmental justice focus of the film
This film highlights how environmental contamination can affect people, particularly indigenous communities, who are fighting for clean, healthy, and safe environments for their families and children. While non-Native American residents fled their homes after the attempts to clean up the Tar Creek site failed, members of the Quapaw Tribe who were forcibly relocated to the area in the first place remain, and they continue to be exposed to dangerous pollution from the lead and zinc mines. The film draws attention to the long history of marginalization and willful neglect that Native Americans have experienced at the hands of the U.S. government and corporate extractive industries—abuses that continue today
"The striking parallels between the Chinese [in] Papua New Guinea and the Canadian...oil sands project are brought out well and poignantly in this film." Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Department of Anthropology, Georgetown University
Awards
Best Documentary Feature, American Indian Film Festival Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, John DeGraaf Lifetime Environmental Filmmaking Award to Christopher McLeod Mill Valley Film Festival Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital screening at Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Columbus International Film+Video Festival
Citation
Main credits
McLeod, Christopher (film director)
McLeod, Christopher (film producer)
Huang, Jennifer (film producer)
Huang, Jennifer (screenwriter)
Greene, Graham (narrator)
Other credits
Edited by Marta Wohl; director of photography, Andrew Black; composer, Jon Herbst.
Distributor credits
Christopher McLeod and Jennifer Huang
Christopher McLeod
Docuseek subjects
Asian Studies
Anthropology and Archaeology
Politics and Political Science
Geography
North American Studies
Water
Environmental Health
Forests and Rainforests
Sustainability
Americas, The
Agriculture and Food
Mining Sector
Citizenship, Social Movements and Activism
Human Rights
Race and Racism
Forestry
Fishing
Global / International Studies
Globalization
Indigenous Studies
Biodiversity
Conservation and Protection
Environmentalists
Habitat Destruction
Pollution
Toxic Waste
History
Colonialism
Ecology
Family Issues
South Asia
Canada
United States
Habitat Restoration
Environmental Geography
Religion and Spirituality
Distributor subjects
Anthropology
Asian Studies
Capitalism
China
Climate Change
Conflict Resolution
Conservation Biology
Corporate
Social Responsibility
Development
Economics
Ecosystems
Environmental Anthropology
Environmental Education
Environmental Geography
Environmental Justice
Environmental Planning
Environmental Policy
Ethics
Fishing
Food
Forestry
Forests
Global Issues
Grasslands and Prairies
Habitat Loss
Health and Health Care
Human Rights
Law
Indigenous Studies
Internationl Studies
Mining
North American Studies
Papa New Guinea
Pollution
Public Health
Rivers
Sociology
Sustainability
Toxic Chemicals
Toxic Waste
United States
Water
Wetlands
Youth and Family
Keywords
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