tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/sacred-sites-34017/articlesSacred sites – The Conversation2024-01-17T13:35:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202032024-01-17T13:35:46Z2024-01-17T13:35:46ZGaza’s oldest mosque, destroyed in an airstrike, was once a temple to Philistine and Roman gods, a Byzantine and Catholic church, and had engravings of Jewish ritual objects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569417/original/file-20240115-19-291cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C634%2C414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Omari Mosque of Gaza.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Great_Mosque_of_Gaza_-_Alafrangi.jpg">Mohammed Alafrangi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Omari Mosque in Gaza was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218384968/mosque-gaza-omari-israel-hamas-war">largely destroyed</a> by <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/footage-shows-massive-damage-to-historic-gaza-mosque-from-reported-idf-strikes/">Israeli bombardment</a> on Dec. 8, 2023. It was one of the most ancient mosques in the region and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USSBE9UswMM">a beloved Gazan landmark</a>.</p>
<p>The mosque was first built in the early seventh century and named after Islam’s second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a successor to the Prophet Muhammad and leader of the early Islamic community. It was a graceful <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/QgVxfKzvTdN69g">white stone structure</a>, with repeating vistas of pointed arches and a tall octagonal minaret encircled by a carved wooden balcony and crowned with a crescent.</p>
<p>The lower half of the minaret and a few exterior walls are reported to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxTGr8giBtg">the only parts of the mosque still standing</a>.</p>
<p>Gaza is rich in cultural treasures, with some 325 formally registered heritage sites within just 141 square miles, including three designated for UNESCO’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/?action=listtentative&state=ps&order=states">World Heritage tentative list</a>. The Omari Mosque is one of over <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231230-israeli-army-destroyed-more-than-200-archeological-sites-in-gaza-report/">200 ancient sites</a> damaged or destroyed in Israeli raids since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/islamicstudies/faculty/sm6995">scholar of Islamic architecture and archaeology</a>, I know the Omari Mosque as a building that <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/QgVxfKzvTdN69g">embodies the history of Gaza itself</a> – as a site of frequent destruction, but also of <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315625164-7">resilience and renewal</a>. While narratives about Gaza often center on war and conflict, Gaza’s rich history and pluralistic identity as expressed through its cultural heritage equally deserve to be known. </p>
<h2>Layered histories</h2>
<p>The sun-soaked <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/08/748661511/heres-what-tourists-might-see-if-they-were-allowed-to-visit-gaza">coastal enclave of Gaza</a>, with the tidy stone buildings of its old city and its verdant olive and orange groves, has been a trade hub that connected the Mediterranean with Africa, Asia and Europe for millennia. It was famed in particular as a transit point for incense, one of the ancient world’s most precious commodities. Given its abundant <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/pgUxShPf2DgZ0A">agricultural and maritime riches</a>, Gaza has known conquest by nearly every powerful empire, including the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the early Islamic caliphs, the Crusaders and the Mongols.</p>
<p>Gaza’s history of repeated conquest meant that buildings were often destroyed, reimagined and rededicated to accommodate changing political and religious practices. New sacred structures were continually built over old ones, and they frequently incorporated “spolia,” or stones reused from prior buildings. The Omari Mosque, too, was such an architectural palimpsest: a building embodying the layered, living material history of the city.</p>
<p>In the second millennium B.C., the site of the mosque is believed to have been a temple for Dagon, the Philistine god of the land and good fortune. The temple is <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Judges.16.23?ven=THE_JPS_TANAKH:_Gender-Sensitive_Edition&lang=en">mentioned in the Hebrew Bible</a> as the one whose walls were felled by the warrior Samson, who is locally believed to be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2aOpeBnbxvsC&q=Great+Mosque+of+Gaza&pg=PA289#v=onepage&q=samson%20is%20said%20to%20be%20buried&f=false">buried in its foundations</a>.</p>
<p>In 323 B.C., Gaza <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-city-Gaza-Strip">fiercely resisted</a> the conquest of Alexander the Great, and the city endured devastating destruction when it was finally subdued. Yet after Gaza was conquered by the Romans in 50 B.C. it entered a period of renewed wealth and prosperity. A concentric domed temple was built for Marnas, a god of storms and the protector of the city, on the site of the future mosque. He was venerated there until just before 400 A.D., when the Byzantine Empress Eudoxia <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/porphyry.asp">imposed the new faith of Christianity</a> and ordered the destruction of the temple.</p>
<p>The priests of the temple <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_City_of_Gaza_in_the_Roman_and_Byzant/6hYXAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=marnas+gaza+priests+resisted&dq=marnas+gaza+priests+resisted&printsec=frontcover">barricaded themselves inside</a> and hid the statues and ritual objects in an underground room. But the temple was destroyed and a Greek Orthodox church rose in its place. The stones, however, preserved the tale: in 1879 a monumental, 10-foot-high statue of Marnas, portrayed in the guise of Zeus, was excavated and its discovery made <a href="https://textualcultures.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-10-foot-marble-zeus-in-nineteenth.html">international media headlines</a>. The statue is now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.</p>
<p>The Byzantine church, too, was destined to be transformed. In the early seventh century, the Muslim general Amr ibn al-As conquered Gaza, and the church was converted into the Omari Mosque. Yet the continued presence of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-christianity-gaza-quick-history">Gazan churches</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=P2LtyFVNJmcC&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false">and synagogues</a> attested to pluralistic norms that <a href="https://time.com/5764119/middle-east-war-history/">characterized the region under various Islamic dynasties until the modern era</a>. </p>
<h2>Gaza under Islamic rule</h2>
<p>Gaza thrived under Islamic rule: Medieval travelers described it as a remarkably fertile, creative and beautiful city, with <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gaza">prominent Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities</a>. It was still a flourishing urban center when the European Crusaders arrived. When the city fell to the Crusader King of Jerusalem, Baldwin III, in 1100, the Omari Mosque was converted once again – this time into <a href="https://sacredfootsteps.com/2023/11/06/the-great-mosque-of-gaza/">a Catholic cathedral</a> dedicated to St. John the Baptist.</p>
<p>The Muslim general Saladin defeated the Crusaders in 1187, and Gaza returned to Islamic rule. The church was transformed back into a mosque, and in the 13th century its elegant octagonal minaret was raised. Yet the reconversion into a mosque preserved much of the Crusader church, and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/sites/4281">majority of the nave</a> and the <a href="https://sacredfootsteps.com/2023/11/06/the-great-mosque-of-gaza/">western portal</a> were still visible in modern times.</p>
<p>It was in this period that the mosque became famed for its extraordinary library containing thousands of books, the earliest dating to the 13th century. After the library of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the Omari Mosque’s collection was <a href="https://cultureincrisis.org/projects/palestine-manuscript-collection-of-the-great-omari-mosque-library">one of the richest in Palestine</a>. </p>
<p>In the 13th century, the mosque endured destruction by the Mongols as well as major earthquakes that would repeatedly topple the minaret. Its rebuilding after each of these disasters speaks to the ongoing centrality of the mosque in the communal life of the people of Gaza. </p>
<h2>The stones tell the tale</h2>
<p>Later, Gaza continued to flourish as a coastal port city, where Muslims, Christians, Jews and others lived in the vast, cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire.</p>
<p>In the late 19th century, as scholars explored Gaza’s heritage, an eloquent reminder of the building’s layered history emerged: a <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menorah_engraving,_Great_Mosque_of_Gaza.jpg">relief on a mosque pillar depicting a seven-branched menorah</a> and Jewish ritual objects, including a shofar, or horn, surrounded by a wreath. The name Hanania, son of Jacob, was engraved in Hebrew and Greek.</p>
<p>Its date is uncertain, but it seems likely to have been a column from a synagogue reused during the building of the Byzantine church, which was used again in the building of the mosque: yet another layer in the architectural palimpsest that was the Omari Mosque.</p>
<p>A few decades later, during World War I, the mosque was <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38133200/Toward_a_Palestinian_History_of_Ruins_Interwar_Gaza_Journal_of_Palestine_Studies_189_no_1_Autumn_2018_">severely damaged</a> when a nearby Ottoman arms depot was targeted by British artillery fire. In the 1920s, the stones were once again gathered and the mosque was rebuilt.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ruins of an ancient monument that show a few intact walls, with stones and other debris scattered around." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569418/original/file-20240115-27-lz22ja.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early 20th century photographs of the Omari Mosque of Gaza after the British bombing include this image of the central part of the Crusader church preserved in the mosque.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.archnet.org/sites/4281?media_content_id=35074">Archnet</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, Gaza became the sanctuary of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees. The area was primarily administered by Egypt until it was captured by Israel in 1967.</p>
<p>It was at some point after the 1967 war, when Jewish symbols had come to be associated with the state of Israel and its occupation of Gaza, that the menorah relief <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38004235/Destruction_as_Layered_Event_International_Journal_of_Islamic_Architecture_8_no_1_Spring_2019_">was effaced from the column</a> in the mosque.</p>
<h2>A future for the Omari Mosque</h2>
<p>On Dec. 8, 2023, Israel became the most recent military force to target the mosque. The library, too, may have been ruined, a treasure house of knowledge that will not so easily be rebuilt. A <a href="https://hmml.org/stories/where-were-working-gaza/">digitization project</a> completed in 2022 preserves an imprint of the library’s riches. Still, digital files can’t replace the material significance of the original manuscripts.</p>
<p>The hundreds of other heritage sites damaged or destroyed include Gaza’s ancient harbor and the fifth century <a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius</a>, one of the oldest churches in the world. </p>
<p>From today’s vantage point, it seems extraordinary that the menorah relief had endured for over 1,000 years: a Jewish symbol unremarkably cohabiting inside a Muslim prayer hall. In truth, both the relief and its removal embody the story of Gaza itself, a fitting reminder of the many centuries of destruction, coexistence and resilience embodied in the mosque’s very stones. </p>
<p>And if the Omari Mosque’s richly layered history is any indication, the people of Gaza will raise those stones again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephennie Mulder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gaza’s Omari Mosque embodies the history of Gaza – as a site of frequent destruction, but also of renewal, writes a scholar of Islamic architecture and archaeology.Stephennie Mulder, Associate Professor of Art History, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2138382023-09-25T12:19:49Z2023-09-25T12:19:49ZThe story of Ohio’s ancient Native complex and its long journey for recognition as a World Heritage site<p>Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unesco-heritage-site-ohio-hopewell-61213918814b987d809f0aa631bab86d">added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites</a> on Sept. 19, 2023. The eight mound complexes that received this designation are spread across central and southern Ohio and were built between the beginning of the common era and the 12th century.</p>
<p>The mounds are marvels of Indigenous science and astronomy, which helped Native Americans organize everything from cycles of planting and hunting to their ritual calendar. </p>
<p>Two mound complexes – Newark, which is part of the network that was designated a heritage site, and Serpent, located in the same area but isn’t technically part of Hopewell and so wasn’t granted heritage status – have been especially poorly treated. </p>
<p>Newark has an approximately 2,000-year-old series of geometric enclosures, the largest series in the world. These enclosures include a circular mound connected by a walled road that leads to an octagon-shaped mound at the site. Physicist and astronomer <a href="https://earlham.edu/faculty-staff/ray-hively/">Ray Hively</a> and philosopher <a href="https://philpeople.org/profiles/robert-horn-1">Robert Horn</a> have <a href="https://ohioarchaeology.org/file_download/inline/acc83ae4-818b-4d3e-8fca-0088b9a7df3c">demonstrated that</a> “the four vertices of the octagon form a square whose sides matches the diameter of the circle.” The symmetry of the circle and octagon <a href="https://www.orangefrazer.com/store/ohio-archaeology-an-illustrated-chronicle-of-ohios-ancient-american-indian-culture">charts nearly perfectly the</a> lunar nodal cycle, which takes 18.6 years to complete.</p>
<p>Serpent Mound lies 125 miles to the south of Newark. It is a nearly 1,400-foot-long effigy of a coiled serpent that also tracks the summer and winter solstice. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GH3l6RpAfFE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Serpent Mound.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/history/people/stephen-warren">historian and ethnographer of the Native American Midwest</a>, I have documented Native peoples’ commitment to their original homelands. The long journey toward this recognition tells a larger story about imperiled Native American sacred sites in the eastern half of the United States and the challenges faced by those who wish to protect them. </p>
<h2>American settlers and Native peoples</h2>
<p>Native nations originally from east of the Mississippi River <a href="https://www.oupress.com/9780806152127/land-too-good-for-indians/#:%7E:text=In%20Land%20Too%20Good%20for,removal%20in%20the%20Old%20Northwest.">largely lost control of their sacred sites</a> as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.</p>
<p>The policy resulted in the wholesale replacement of Native Americans with <a href="https://www.potawatomiheritage.com/encyclopedia/trail-of-death/">settlers in nearly every corner</a> of the eastern half of the United States. Three of the Native nations that have helped win the World Heritage designation for the mounds – the Shawnee, Potawatomi and Miami Nation – were subject to removal.</p>
<p>In 1831, soldiers forced Shawnee villagers in northeastern Ohio to move from their land. Seven years later, the U.S. Army compelled 859 Potawatomis from northern Indiana to leave – an event, known as the “Trail of Death,” that resulted in the deaths of more than 40 of their people. And in 1846, American settlers forced the Miami Nation out of their homes along the Wabash River, in Indiana. They ultimately accepted a reservation in Oklahoma. </p>
<p>This policy was widespread: Only one nation, the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, <a href="https://www.meskwaki.org/history/">or Meskwaki</a>, remains headquartered in the lower Midwest. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white sketch showing people approaching, some riding horses, holding either flags or guns in their hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549653/original/file-20230921-15-g5cxu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early Europeans forced Native people to leave their lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14753280965">Image from Page 72 of 'Indian history for young folks' (1919) / Internet Archive Book Images via Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The forced expulsion of Native nations from their homelands made it difficult for them to protect their sacred heritage. For example, the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma is headquartered roughly 750 miles from the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which many <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469627274/the-worlds-the-shawnees-made/">Shawnees and scholars believe</a> was built by the tribe’s ancestors. </p>
<p>Native nations now headquartered in Oklahoma cannot provide the kind of daily protection of their sacred sites that they once did. Instead, they must rely on non-Native allies who now live on their ancestral lands.</p>
<h2>Post-removal abuse and neglect</h2>
<p>The Newark Earthworks and Serpent Mound illustrate the difficulty of protecting and reclaiming sacred sites for Native nations subjected to removal. </p>
<p>Over the years, Newark became a military barracks, a fairground, and for the past century it has been leased to the Moundbuilders Country Club. Since 1910, <a href="https://culturalpropertynews.org/golf-vs-ancient-earthworks-moundbuilders-country-club-case-comes-to-the-fore/">an 18-hole golf course has made use of</a> the mound complex. </p>
<p>Ephraim Squier was the first archaeologist to study Newark, in the 1840s. At the time, most Americans believed that the Bible was the literal word of God and that white Americans were a superior race. Both beliefs shaped archaeological theory. Squier argued that the Toltecs <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803227842/">built the mounds</a> and then migrated to Mesoamerica, where they built the great monuments of Mexico and Guatemala. He did not believe that the Indigenous people of the United States were capable of building the mounds.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some Americans <a href="https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/opinion/2021/10/10/lepper-ohio-serpent-mound-american-indian-monument/6003693001/">continue to promote false theories</a> about the mounds, casting doubt on the genius of Indigenous science. </p>
<p>Despite his misgivings, Squier nonetheless <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_04301/?sp=61&r=-1.296,-0.037,3.592,1.617,0">acknowledged their beauty and accuracy</a>, writing that “the most skillful engineer of the day” would not be able to replicate the accurate dimensions of these mounds.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, <a href="https://www.serpentmound.org/">Serpent Mound was partially destroyed</a> by farmers. Then, in the the 20th century, two private, nonprofit corporations, Friends of Serpent Mound and Arc of Appalachia, <a href="https://www.ohiohistory.org/serpent-mound-management-update/">started to manage the site</a>. </p>
<p>These organizations sponsored events in which New Age groups buried crystals in Serpent Mound, lit luminaria around the base of the serpent and conducted summer and winter solstice celebrations they called Star Knowledge Peace Summits. “The crystal people and the New-Agers had taken over the place,” said one park ranger I interviewed in 2022. </p>
<p>Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma has described these practices as <a href="https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/2019/07/20/wallace-shawnee-perspective-newark-earthworks/1759093001/">desecrations that were conducted</a> without their consent. “My ancestors treasured these mounds. They were sacred. No, they did not build them but they loved them, protected them, revered them,” she wrote. </p>
<p>When she first visited Newark in June 2007, there was a golf tournament underway. Instead of welcoming her, <a href="https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/2019/07/20/wallace-shawnee-perspective-newark-earthworks/1759093001/">she recalls golfers shouting</a>, “Get back! You’re in the way!” as she attempted to admire her ancestors’ creation.</p>
<h2>Collaboration and hope for the future</h2>
<p>The fight to protect the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks represents more than 25 years of hard work. Citizens of Native nations who were forcibly removed to Oklahoma collaborated with Native and non-Native allies affiliated with the Newark Earthworks Center – an academic center at Ohio State University, Newark campus – and the Ohio History Connection to protect and research the mounds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aerial view of a mound shaped like a long snake holding an egg in its jaws." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549657/original/file-20230921-29-ekmgaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-great-serpent-mound-in-adams-county-ohio-built-by-the-news-photo/2672863?adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Since 2020, the Ohio History Connection, which took over management of Serpent Mound, has been doing community-engaged archaeology. As part of this engagement, staff archaeologists work with the cultural preservation officers of affiliated Native nations to interpret the site. </p>
<p>Similarly, the staff of the Ohio History Connection and the Newark Earthworks Center regularly consult with tribal leaders regarding the Newark Earthworks. These diverse stakeholders <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1689/documents/">worked together</a> for the World Heritage designation. </p>
<p>The fight over the Newark Earthworks has proved far more difficult. The golf club has a century-long lease with the state of Ohio, which the state attempted to terminate through eminent domain. In response, Moundbuilders Country Club sued the Ohio History Connection, arguing that the state of Ohio did not have the right to take private property and convert it to public use.</p>
<p>In May 2019, Licking County Common Pleas Court <a href="https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/2019/05/10/judge-rules-ohc-can-reclaim-octagon-mounds-country-cub/1170949001/">Judge David Branstool concluded</a> that “100 years of manicured lawns does not immunize the Country Club from eminent domain.” In short, the public’s right to access and appreciate the site is more important than the right of country club members to play golf on the mounds. </p>
<p>In December 2022, the Moundbuilders Country Club <a href="https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2022/2022-Ohio-4345.pdf">appealed the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court and lost</a>. Now both sides await a trial to determine how much money the Ohio History Connection must pay to the club to finally control the mound complex.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there is much to celebrate now that the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks has been named the 25th World Heritage site in the United States. The collaborative partnership between Native nations removed from Ohio, the Ohio History Connection, the National Park Service and dedicated archaeologists in the state serves as a hopeful example of how sacred sites in the eastern half of the United States might be better protected, and interpreted, in the future. </p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note: Serpent Mound isn’t technically part of Hopewell, so it wasn’t granted heritage status, as erroneously stated earlier.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Indigenous sacred site, Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks has served as a military barracks, a fairground and, more recently, a golf course.Stephen Warren, Professor of History and Program Coordinator, Native American and Indigenous Studies, University of IowaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113992023-09-05T12:29:58Z2023-09-05T12:29:58ZClimate change is destroying reefs, but the effects are more than ecological – coral’s been woven into culture and spirituality for centuries<p>Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Aug. 30, 2023, bringing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hurricane-storm-surge-and-why-can-it-be-so-catastrophic-145369">surging seas</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/florida-hurricane-idalia-2136985ceea53f5deb600c43aeea1138">winds over 100 mph</a>. Meanwhile, another climate emergency has been unfolding along Florida’s coast this summer: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk0565">marine heat wave</a> bleaching corals throughout the world’s <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/southflorida/habitats/corals/geographical-distribution/">third-largest barrier reef</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, ocean temperatures in many parts of the Atlantic and Pacific are at <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/record-ocean-heat-impacts-from-hurricanes-to-corals">record highs</a>, with reefs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/11/coral-bleaching-central-america">from Colombia</a> <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/concern-grows-over-unexpected-coral-bleaching-on-the-great-barrier-reef/pbi69ju9t">to Australia</a> showing signs of stress in recent years. Scientists warn that the world may be witnessing the start of a <a href="https://earth.google.com/web/@24.4430141,123.8161774,1.99338294a,0d,60y,358.27417338h,113t,0r/data=CkoSSBIgY2EwYzk0ZGNhN2I4MTFlN2I1ZDBiNzRhMWFlNGU2MDMiJGVmZWVkX29jZWFuX2FnZW5jeV9jb3JhbF9ibGVhY2hpbmdfMSIwCixBRjFRaXBPQXhSWk82WHppY1Z0QkJWOVlPOThCMmt2NkRZNTViR2p5azNFcBAF">global coral-bleaching event</a>, which would be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/18/noaa-florida-coral-bleaching-event-could-go-global.html">the fourth on record</a> – and while corals <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html">can survive bleaching</a>, they won’t if the waters stay warm for too long.</p>
<p>Large-scale reef destruction tends to be measured in <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/coral-reefs.html">biological and economic terms</a>. Reefs support about 25% <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025026">of all marine species</a>, protect human lives and property by buffering shorelines and bolster the worldwide economy through fishing and tourism. </p>
<p>But coral’s loss also takes an enormous spiritual, psychological and cultural toll – one of the main topics of <a href="https://miamioh.edu/profiles/cas/michele-navakas.html">my research</a> and recent book, “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691240091/coral-lives">Coral Lives</a>.” Centuries of writing, painting, storytelling and rituals show that coral has given meaning to human lives for nearly as long as we’ve been around to marvel at it.</p>
<h2>Protective powers</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Renaissance painting of a woman in a white cap holding a baby who is draped in white fabric and wearing a red necklace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545609/original/file-20230830-19-ug6tbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from the 15th-century painting ‘The Senigallia Madonna,’ by Piero della Francesca, depicts Jesus with coral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-marche-pesaro-urbino-urbino-marche-national-gallery-news-photo/132702015?adppopup=true">Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the Middle Ages until the 19th century, anxious new parents across Europe and North America clasped red coral necklaces and bracelets to their children’s bodies and gave them red coral to hold – and even teethe on – because coral symbolized physical and spiritual protection. Early Christian art from the medieval and Renaissance periods often features the infant Jesus in red coral, which scholars suggest may also be because its color <a href="https://surface.syr.edu/beads/vol16/iss1/4/">symbolized the blood of Christ</a>.</p>
<p>Coral encircles the necks and wrists of babies and children in more secular portraits, too, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Often a child holds the “coral and bells,” a combination toy and teething aid: Children would alternately shake it as a rattle and chew on the red coral shaft to soothe sore gums. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691240091/coral-lives">The item was cherished</a> by the families of presidents and poets alike, from George Washington to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/long/blogs/coral-and-silver-baby-rattle.htm">who even wrote about it</a>. “Coral and bells” were such a popular christening present that shops could barely keep it in stock.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a tiny red dagger-shaped item with an ornate silver handle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545614/original/file-20230830-25-feg4b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘coral and bells’ toy made in New York in the 18th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rattle-whistle-and-bells-1735-45-made-in-new-york-new-york-news-photo/1216161314?adppopup=true">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For these families and countless others across centuries, coral was far more than ornamental. By giving a child coral, parents were protecting what was most precious to them: their child’s life. </p>
<h2>The birth of coral</h2>
<p>Belief in the protective powers of coral dates to at least the classical period. According to <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ovids-metamorphoses">the first-century Roman poet Ovid</a>, coral carried petrifying powers because it <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050690">originally emerged from the touch of Medusa</a>, the snake-haired Gorgon whose stare could turn others to stone. In <a href="https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph4.htm">his epic poem “Metamorphoses</a>,” Ovid describes the hero Perseus severing Medusa’s head and laying it on a bed of seaweed that then hardened into coral. By the medieval period, this story gave rise to popular beliefs that wearing coral could ward off the “evil eye.” </p>
<p>Coral was also believed to have curative properties. In the “<a href="https://dpul.princeton.edu/gutenberg/catalog/q237hx283">Historia naturalis</a>,” an encyclopedia of the natural world, Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote of the <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D32%3Achapter%3D11">sacred and medicinal qualities of coral</a>. The material could remedy a variety of ailments when ingested, he claimed – which also explains why people once thought it was healthy for children to chew on coral.</p>
<p>Modern medicine, of course, argues against these ideas. But during historical periods when <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality-in-the-past">child mortality rates may have been almost 50%</a>, coral calmed anxious parents’ fears.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A formal portrait of three young girls in brightly colored dresses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545640/original/file-20230830-16-camv9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The child at left wears a coral necklace in William Matthew Prior’s portrait of three daughters of African American real estate investor Samuel Copeland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/William_Matthew_Prior_-_Three_Sisters_of_the_Copeland_Family_-_48.467_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg/512px-William_Matthew_Prior_-_Three_Sisters_of_the_Copeland_Family_-_48.467_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg">BotMultichillT/Wikimedia Commons/Museum of Fine Arts Boston</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To this day, in some parts of the world, coral continues to provide a sense of control over situations that are largely out of our hands. In southern Italy, people give one another the “cornicello” for good luck: a small, horn-shaped charm frequently made of red coral. Some rosaries, too, are still <a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1143060">made of red coral beads</a>, just as they were in the Middle Ages.</p>
<h2>Community bonds</h2>
<p>Beyond protection, coral can also symbolize belonging. Throughout the African diaspora during the 18th and 19th centuries, free and enslaved women in many communities wore red coral jewelry, particularly on special occasions, to commemorate a shared past and create new bonds.</p>
<p>Groups of women in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, for example, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691240091/coral-lives">wore coral necklaces, earrings and bracelets during Jonkonnu</a>, a Christmas holiday masquerade of West African origins that incorporates traditional music and dance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A colored drawing of women in elaborate costumes with white and red skirts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545140/original/file-20230828-17-la7rj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sketch of Jonkonnu celebrations by 19th century Jamaican artist Isaac Mendes Belisario.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/2308">Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As historian <a href="https://www.gvsu.edu/history/steeve-buckridge-62.htm">Steeve O. Buckridge</a> explains, these women <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766401436/the-language-of-dress/">used clothing and jewelry</a> to communicate their identities nonverbally. Wearing coral was a way to preserve links to the African cultures from which slavery had severed these women. In many cultures, red coral beads were – and in some cases still are – objects of spiritual, economic and cultural significance. </p>
<p>In fact, coral was so valuable that it came to play a violent role in history. In coastal areas of Western Africa, coral became <a href="https://hal.science/hal-01991948/">currency in the transatlantic slave trade</a>: Slave traders exchanged coral for people.</p>
<p>But when diasporic women wore coral, it became part of their choice to create a different present and future. As scholar <a href="https://cssh.northeastern.edu/faculty/elizabeth-dillon/">Elizabeth Maddock Dillon</a> has also observed, each piece of their elaborate Jonkonnu costumes announced “not only splendor and beauty but <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/new-world-drama">a form of social belonging</a>” within different “kinship groups” of their own devising. Coral simultaneously signified slavery and hope for new possibilities.</p>
<h2>Forging the future</h2>
<p>After the Civil War, Black communities in the United States embraced coral for another reason. During Reconstruction, as these communities struggled to create a more just country, writers, religious leaders and activists <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691240091/coral-lives">turned to reefs as an inspiring model</a>.</p>
<p>Even massive coral reefs are made up of millions of microscopic animals called polyps, which many people in the 19th century understood as “laborers” working together to build the reef. According to African American poet and civil rights advocate <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-ellen-watkins-harper">Frances Ellen Watkins Harper</a>, reefs expand by sustaining others, rather than devaluing or displacing them. In her 1871 poem “<a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009567459">The Little Builders</a>,” Harper chose reefs as an analogy for how listeners and readers, Black and white, should work to build the social and financial bonds equality would depend on.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photograph of a woman in dark clothing standing formally while holding on to a chair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545641/original/file-20230830-27-x1m060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, pictured in the 19th century book ‘Women of distinction: remarkable in works and invincible in character.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14598047448/">Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But Harper knew that outcome was by no means certain. That’s why the coral analogy worked so well. As Charles Darwin explained in 1842 in a famous <a href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=F271&viewtype=text">treatise on coral</a>, reefs are formed by so many relationships among different individual organisms across vast periods of time that their future form and shape can only be unpredictable.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691240091/coral-lives">my book</a> shows, in that unpredictability Black writers like Harper found hope. To them it meant that the actions of one single and seemingly insignificant individual might help transform an entire system.</p>
<h2>Grief and preservation</h2>
<p>Coral’s biological uniqueness and central role in sustaining other forms of life, including humans, are reasons enough to preserve it. And scientists <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-heroic-effort-to-save-floridas-coral-reef-from-extreme-ocean-heat-as-corals-bleach-across-the-caribbean-210974">are making extraordinary efforts</a>, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/climate/coral-reefs-heat-florida-ocean-temperatures.html">relocating threatened species</a> to dry tanks on land and developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4685">tools to predict marine heat waves</a> months in advance. </p>
<p>But for centuries, coral has also shaped thoughts about difficult human problems, from love and loss to social injustice. Reefs have provided knowledge, stories, hopes and histories in many cultures, far beyond the handful mentioned here. As we lose coral, then, we are also losing a material that has given us vital ways to understand and act within an increasingly chaotic world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Navakas has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for research on which this article is based.</span></em></p>Coral has been incorporated into traditions, art and even religion in communities around the world.Michele Currie Navakas, Professor of English, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087372023-08-15T12:36:05Z2023-08-15T12:36:05ZThreat from climate change to some of India’s sacred pilgrimage sites is reshaping religious beliefs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541580/original/file-20230807-675-omrts5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C0%2C3447%2C2310&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hindu devotees worship at the Kedarnath Temple in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photograph-taken-on-june-16-indian-hindu-devotees-news-photo/698321918?adppopup=true">Shammi Mehra/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The famous <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kedarnath-temple-opens-for-pilgrims-why-this-temple-in-uttarakhand-is-famous-1520807-2019-05-09">pilgrimage site of Kedarnath</a>, located in the central Himalayas of India, is believed to be a sacred land. It has been referred to as “deva bhumi,” or the “land of the gods,” for centuries. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sacredyatra.com/chardham-yatra-pilgrim-stats.html">Millions of people visit this region</a> each year in search of divine blessings and other religious benefits as part of what is known as the Char Dham Yatra, or the pilgrimage to four sacred mountainous abodes devoted to different gods and goddesses. Situated at the base of 20,000-foot snowy peaks, Kedarnath is one of these four major destinations. </p>
<p>The mighty Hindu god Shiva is believed to have manifested in the middle of a meadow in Kedarnath as a conical rock formation that has long been worshiped as a lingam, an embodied form of the deity. A stone temple has stood over the lingam for at least a thousand years, at an altitude of about 12,000 feet.</p>
<p>I visited this area in 2000, 2014 and 2019 as part of research I’ve been conducting for decades on religion, nature and ecology; I have spent numerous summers in the Himalayas. Many in the vast crowds of people on the Char Dham Yatra told me that they believe it is important to undertake this pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime, often identifying it as the most significant journey they will ever perform.</p>
<p>But climate change now threatens the sacred sites of this region. As global temperatures rise, glaciers on the 20,000-foot peaks above Kedarnath that are key sources of the Mandakini River, a major tributary of the Ganges, are <a href="https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/13/21428/Rapid-Melt-of-Himalayan-Glaciers-Sounds-the-Alarm">melting and retreating at alarming rates</a>. In turn, as I argue in my book, “<a href="https://iupress.org/9780253056047/understanding-climate-change-through-religious-lifeworlds/">Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworlds</a>,” climate change disasters are acting as powerful drivers of religious transformations, reshaping religious ideas and practices. </p>
<h2>Threats to the Himalayan region</h2>
<p>Glacial deterioration is happening worldwide, but subtropical glaciers in high mountainous areas such as the Indian Himalayas <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/himalaya-glaciers-melting-faster-study-warns-will-affect-us-all">are more vulnerable</a> because of their low latitudes. Many climate scientists believe that climate change is affecting the Himalayas <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/climate/ignoring-climate-change-in-the-himalayas">more than almost any other region</a> of the world. </p>
<p>Melting glaciers leave massive amounts of water in lakes held in place by unstable natural dams formed of rubble heaped up when the glaciers were healthy and pushing down a slope. The expanding lakes left behind by shrinking glaciers are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36033-x">increasingly prone to glacial lake outburst floods</a>. Another serious danger threatening high mountainous areas as a result of global warming is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06092-7">shift from snow to extreme rain</a> at increasingly higher altitudes. </p>
<p>Snow clings to hillsides and melts gradually, while rain rushes down slopes immediately, causing destructive erosion, landslides and deluges. The combination of extreme rain and glacial lake outburst floods can lead to deadly flooding, as demonstrated by a catastrophe in Kedarnath in 2013.</p>
<h2>Kedarnath disaster</h2>
<p>Himalayan researchers determined that in June 2013, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269696415_Kedarnath_disaster_Facts_and_plausible_causes">more than a foot of rain fell</a> within 24 hours near Kedarnath at elevations never previously recorded. The entire watershed above Kedarnath was filled with raging water. Additionally, the Mandakini River burst out of its banks, causing landslides and devastating flooding. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial view showing buildings and erosion as a result of flooding in a town, located in a valley." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541582/original/file-20230807-1292-c8shsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kedarnath Temple pictured amid flood destruction on June 18, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-kedarnath-temple-is-pictured-amid-flood-destruction-in-news-photo/170800919?adppopup=true">Strdel/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To make matters worse, the rubble dam that had held back the glacial lake formed by the melting Chorabari Glacier above Kedarnath suddenly breached, releasing a high wall of crashing water. In a matter of 15 minutes, the entire content of the lake was emptied, cresting over three-story buildings with a pounding flow that University of Calcutta scientists estimated was <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/unnatural_disaster_how_global_warming_helped_cause_indias_catastrophic_flood#:%7E:text=Global%20warming%20has%20is%20also,pulse%20of%20debris%2Dfilled%20water">half the volume of Niagara Falls</a>. </p>
<p>Fortunately – or, according to pilgrims, miraculously – a 30-foot oblong boulder rolled down the mountain and stopped just before the ancient temple, parting the powerful waters and protecting the temple so that it remained standing without major damage. Every other building in the town of Kedarnath was demolished. </p>
<p>Government figures claim over 6,000 people died, but those <a href="https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/2013-kedarnath-flood-disaster-how-a-cloudburst-killed-6000-people-9-years-ago">involved in the rescue operations set the figure much higher</a>. Most of the dead were pilgrims.</p>
<h2>‘The Gods are angry’</h2>
<p>The destructive flooding is changing people’s beliefs. The gods of this region are closely associated with the land itself; and these gods, nature and humans are intimately connected. People living in this region understand the dramatic changes taking place here in terms of this triad. </p>
<p><a href="https://iupress.org/9780253056047/understanding-climate-change-through-religious-lifeworlds/">A resident of Gangotri explained</a>, “The gods are angry with us because of how we are now acting.” When I said to him that I thought this area is where people have been coming for a long time to receive the blessing from the gods, he responded, “Yes, but now they are angry with us. That is why this (Kedarnath disaster) has happened. And more will come if we do not change our ways.” </p>
<p>I found this to be a common view – weather-related disasters were being understood as a result of the immoral actions of human beings, particularly the disregard for the environment. </p>
<p>One significant theological change that appeared to be underway within Himalayan Hinduism as a result of climate change was the transformation of the primary conception of the gods from those who bless to those who punish. “There is so much sin in the world today,” <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253056047/understanding-climate-change-through-religious-lifeworlds/">a resident of Uttarkashi told me</a>. “People are making a lot of pollution. Because of this, the climate is changing and the gods are beginning to punish us.” </p>
<p>In some ways there is nothing new in the assertion that human morality and the environment are intimately linked, but the degree of change that is now happening has introduced a new level of concern. </p>
<p>Wandering holy men in this region are witnessing firsthand the dramatic changes in the Himalayas during their years of travel. One holy man living in this area explained, “The gods are nature. When we disrespect nature, <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253056047/understanding-climate-change-through-religious-lifeworlds/">we disrespect the gods</a>. They are now angry because of what we are doing to nature. This is why the destructive storms are increasing.” </p>
<h2>Conditional hope</h2>
<p>All is not lost, however, and there remains some hope for a better outcome. There is a sense that things can still be turned around and the worst avoided if humans are willing to change their ways. Specifically, many articulated this as a return to a more respectful relationship with the gods of the land. </p>
<p>When asked how to please the gods and turn things around, a man in Kedarnath put it simply: “To once again respect the land and nature.” There is no great difference between treating the gods with respect and nature well. <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253056047/understanding-climate-change-through-religious-lifeworlds/">A woman I spoke to in Uttarkashi elaborated</a> on this: “The gods and the land are the same. And we are mistreating both. The floods are like a warning slap to a child. They are a wake-up call telling us to change our ways. … If not, we will be finished.”</p>
<p>Human behavior remains a major factor in the holistic worldview that connects humans, gods and environment, and a return to respectful relationships is the key to a sustainable future. </p>
<p>Many Himalayan residents say that humans have the choice to return to a more mutually beneficial relationship with the natural world, but if the gods’ stormy warnings are not heeded, then massive destruction and a gruesome end is near. </p>
<h2>Uncertain future</h2>
<p>Destructive floods continue to happen in the central Himalayas with increasing <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/16/flood-himalayas-development-climate/">force and frequency</a>. Since the 2013 disaster at Kedarnath, more than 800 people have been killed in <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/uttarakhand-a-land-ravaged-by-natural-disasters/articleshow/92630543.cms?from=mdr">flash floods in the Char Dham region</a>. </p>
<p>The Kedarnath pilgrimage was <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/kedarnath-yatra-2022-suspended-due-to-heavy-rains-in-uttarakhand-details-here-11657359453169.html">suspended in 2022</a> because of deadly landslides and flooding, but the Indian government has also heavily promoted religious tourism in this area. The <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/char-dham-yatra-sees-record-footfall-this-year/article66001254.ece">year 2022 saw a record number of pilgrims</a> visiting Kedarnath and the three other Char Dham sites in the central Himalayas, which only puts more stress on the land, with additional buildings, crowded roads and polluting vehicles.</p>
<p>With vehicles, factories and other human activities continuing to pump excessive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, warming the planet, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0855-4">experts fear</a> disasters like Kedarnath saw in 2013 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36033-x">will become only more common</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David L. Haberman receives funding from American Institute of India Studies (AIIS). I received a grant from AIIS to research the effects of climate change related disasters on the religious site of Kedarnath and the other Char Dham sites. the summer months of 2019.</span></em></p>At the pilgrimage site of Kedarnath in northern India, disastrous flooding has led many to ask whether the gods are getting angry about human behavior.David L. Haberman, Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114012023-08-11T15:28:12Z2023-08-11T15:28:12ZNative Hawaiian sacred sites have been damaged in the Lahaina wildfires – but, as an Indigenous scholar writes, their stories will live on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542348/original/file-20230811-25-v7315o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C8%2C5335%2C3556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the devastation in Lahaina, Hawaii, following the wildfires in August 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HawaiiFires/d2b512c087ea4705ba5dfaff7fb99bc5/photo?Query=fires%20Lahaina&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=694&currentItemNo=3&vs=true">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Native Hawaiians are devastated by the recent wildfires that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/10/maui-lahaina-wildfires-banyan-tree-landmarks/">swept through Lahaina</a>, Maui, killing dozens of residents and destroying hundreds of homes, buildings, Christian churches and Buddhist temples.</p>
<p>It is not just the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/lahaina-maui-wildfires-hawaii-history.html">historic buildings and landmarks</a> that are important to Native Hawaiians. This region of Maui has a longer history. </p>
<p>It has been revered by its Indigenous peoples as a sacred place for generations. In the 19th century, it served as the home and burial place of the Hawaiian royal family and became the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Carmen Lindsey, chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said <a href="https://www.oha.org/news/oha-board-chair-carmen-hulu-lindsey-statement-on-maui-wildfires/">in a statement</a> that “Lahaina holds some of the most historically significant cultural properties and highest-ranking sacred remains of our ancestors.”</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.rosalynlapier.com/">Indigenous scholar</a> who studies the environment and religion of Indigenous peoples, I am interested in <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-global-warming-change-native-american-religious-practices-79894">how environmental change</a> such as the catastrophic wildfire at Lahaina impacts sacred sites. </p>
<h2>Ancient connections</h2>
<p>Lahaina is revered by Native Hawaiians because it has long been the home of <a href="https://hawaiialive.org/kihawahine/">Kihawahine, a woman who transformed into a moʻo goddess</a>, or a supernatural shapeshifting lizard in Hawaiian religion. Her primary home was in a fishpond at Mokuʻula, a small island in Lahaina that was considered a “piko,” or center of traditional religious and political activity. Native Hawaiian royalty lived nearby to be near Kihawahine and her supernatural power.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/places/lahaina-historic-district.htm">history of the region</a> is also connected to King Kamehameha. After Kamehameha, the “aliʻi ʻai moku” or lead chief of the Island of Hawaii, succeeded in unifying all the Hawaiian islands in 1810, he made Lahaina on Maui his royal residence. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of a young man in a red cloak, holding a staff." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542351/original/file-20230811-19-hn8w80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of King Kamehameha III of Hawaii, age 11.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Robert_Dampier_%281800-1874%29_-_Kamehameha_III%2C_1825.jpg">Robert Dampier via Wikimedia Commons. Honolulu Museum of Art.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He selected this place to be near <a href="https://hawaiialive.org/kihawahine/">Kihawahine, the guardian spirit of his wife Keōpūolani</a>. He then venerated Kihawahine, which assured that his lineage would continue to serve as leaders.</p>
<p>In the ensuing years, Lahaina became the capital of the newly unified Kingdom of Hawaii under Kamehameha and his descendants’ rule. The capital remained in Lahaina until 1845, when King Kamehameha III relocated it to Honolulu, Oahu. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://hawaiialive.org/kihawahine/">earthly home of Kihawahine</a> changed dramatically with the coming of American colonization and capitalism to the Island of Maui in the 19th century. Sugarcane companies diverted the waters that fed the fishpond and freshwater springs at Mokuʻula for irrigation, which caused the fishpond to dry up. Subsequently, the U.S. Territory of Hawaii filled what was left of the pond with soil in the early 20th century for a public park. </p>
<p>Efforts have been underway to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxjNtcBA1G8">restore Mokuʻula in Lahaina</a> and revitalize its history as a Native Hawaiian sacred place. These efforts, however, will be dramatically impacted by <a href="https://theconversation.com/maui-wildfires-extra-logistical-challenges-hinder-governments-initial-response-when-disasters-strike-islands-211384">the devastation of the Lahaina fire</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lxjNtcBA1G8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Restoration efforts at Mokuʻula.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-sleepwalking-a-bushfire-scientist-explains-what-the-hawaii-tragedy-means-for-our-flammable-continent-211364">According to scientists</a>, destructive wildfires like the one in Lahaina are becoming more common and more intense due to climate change. </p>
<p>Chairwoman Lindsey of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs also sees other influences. “The fires of today are <a href="https://www.oha.org/news/oha-board-chair-carmen-hulu-lindsey-statement-on-maui-wildfires/">in part due to the climate crisis</a>, a history of colonialism in our islands, and the loss of our right to steward our ‘aina and wai’ [land and water],” she said. </p>
<p>The historic buildings and cultural properties of this place will be forever lost. That sense of loss is summed up in <a href="https://www.oha.org/news/oha-board-chair-carmen-hulu-lindsey-statement-on-maui-wildfires/">Lindsey’s words</a>: “We have watched our precious cultural assets, our physical connection to our ancestors, our places of remembering — all go up in smoke.” </p>
<p>But the stories of Kihawahine and Hawaiian sacred places will live on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The region of Maui has been revered by its Indigenous peoples as a sacred place for generations. It is believed to be the home of Kihawahine, a woman who transformed into a goddess.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093112023-08-04T12:27:54Z2023-08-04T12:27:54ZShaligrams, the sacred fossils that have been worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists for over 2,000 years, are becoming rarer because of climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536833/original/file-20230711-29-xz2dcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C5%2C877%2C592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Shaligram on top of a bed of small rocks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 2,000 years, Hinduism, Buddhism and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195154146.001.0001">shamanic Himalayan religion of Bon</a> have venerated <a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligrams</a> – ancient fossils of ammonites, a class of extinct sea creatures related to modern squids.</p>
<p>Originating from a single remote region in northern Nepal – the Kali Gandaki River Valley of Mustang – Shaligram stones are viewed primarily as manifestations of the Hindu god Vishnu. Because they are not human-made, but <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/12027">created by the landscape</a>, they are believed to have an intrinsic consciousness of their own. As a result, Shaligrams are kept in homes and in temples, where they are treated as both living gods and active community members.</p>
<p>I went on my first Shaligram pilgrimage in 2015. After arriving at the village of Jomsom in Mustang, I, along with a group of Indian and Nepali pilgrims, started the five-day trek northeast from there to the temple of Muktinath, where the journey culminates. </p>
<p>Making our way through the winding river passage, between 26,000-foot (8,000-meter) mountain peaks, we carefully looked for Shaligrams in the fast-moving water and gathered up any we could reach.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/anthropology/faculty/hollywalters">as an anthropologist</a>, I have documented a wide variety of Shaligram practices while working with devotees in Nepal and in India. In 2020 I wrote the first ethnographic account, “<a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas</a>,” which demonstrates how popular and important the pilgrimage is among South Asian and the wider global Hindu diasporas.</p>
<p>However, my ongoing work focuses more on how climate change and gravel mining are altering the course of the river, which is endangering the pilgrimage by making it harder to find Shaligrams.</p>
<h2>Living fossils</h2>
<p>The mythology of Shaligrams is associated with two legends. The first is told in a series of three Hindu scriptures, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Purana">Varaha, Padma and Brahmavaivarta Puranas</a>. </p>
<p>In each version of this story, the Hindu god Vishnu, believed to be the supreme creator, is cursed by the goddess Tulsi, who is also called Brinda, because he compromises her chastity. As the story is told, Vishnu disguised himself as her husband Jalandhar so that the god Shiva could kill the demon in a fight. This was because Jalandhar, born from Shiva’s third eye, had previously won a boon from the god Brahma that his wife’s chastity would keep him invincible in any battle. </p>
<p>Angry at the deception, Tulsi <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/%C5%9A%C4%81lagr%C4%81ma_kosha.html?id=32XXAAAAMAAJ">transformed herself into a river</a> – the Kali Gandaki – and turned Vishnu into a river stone, a Shaligram. In this way, Vishnu would be continuously born from her, like a child, in repayment for the karmic debt of killing her husband and making her a widow. The landscape of Mustang thus represents the bodies of Tulsi and Vishnu, producing Shaligram stones as divine manifestations from the waters of the Kali Gandaki. </p>
<p>The second legend is told in the Skanda Purana, which explains that Shaligrams are physically created by a type of celestial worm called the vajra-kita – translated as thunderbolt or adamantine worm – which is responsible for carving out the holes and coiled spiral formations that appear on the stones. </p>
<p>As a result, the beliefs around the mythological formation of Shaligrams involve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048550142.007%5BOpens%20in%20a%20new%20window%5D">both legends</a>. As part of the first legend, Vishnu takes up residence within a sacred stone that appears in the Kali Gandaki River of Nepal. The story of the second legend is expressed in the carving of that stone by the vajra-kita to give it its uniquely smooth, rounded shape and the characteristic spirals both inside and on the surface. </p>
<h2>Rivers and roads</h2>
<p>Shaligram pilgrimage takes place high in the Himalayas, usually between April and June and again between late August and November. This helps avoid both the worst of the July monsoon rains and the December snows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Snow-capped mountain peaks near a flowing river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mount Nilgiri seen from the bed of the Kali Gandaki River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mustang, however, is <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:130645682">currently divided</a> into the upper or the northern region and the lower or the southern region. In 1950, both Upper and Lower Mustang were <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/92e748bdfc52a6614ab21387b145eb95/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">closed to travel</a> following China’s annexation of Tibet. But though Lower Mustang was reopened to pilgrimage and trekking in 1992, Upper Mustang remains highly restricted. </p>
<p>This means that the current Shaligram pilgrimage route does not include visiting the Damodar Kund – the glacial lake that produces Shaligrams from the high-altitude fossil beds – because pilgrims are still not allowed to freely cross into Upper Mustang.</p>
<p>The village of Kagbeni marks the principal boundary between the two divisions and is also one of the main stops on the Shaligram pilgrimage route. The village sits directly on the banks of the Kali Gandaki and is one of the few areas where pilgrims can reliably find significant numbers of Shaligrams by wading through the river themselves and by watching the river bed for any signs of a black spiral emerging from the sand.</p>
<p>The last destination on the pilgrimage route, at roughly 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), is the temple site of Muktinath, which contains <a href="https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132107729">multiple sacred areas of worship</a> for Hindus, Buddhists and followers of Bon. As a place of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3673473">Hindu worship</a>, Muktinath offers a central shrine to the deity Vishnu as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14789.78561">108 water spouts under which pilgrims must pass</a>. The water spouts themselves are hammered directly into the mountain side, which contains a natural aquifer, and provide one last opportunity for practitioners to bathe themselves and their Shaligrams in the waters of Mustang.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004443723_002">Bon sanctuary</a>, Muktinath is home to the “Jwala Mai,” or the mother flame, a natural gas vent that produces a continuous flame that burns next to the constant flow of water from the mountain aquifer. Along with the high winds of the Himalayas, representing the element of air, and Shaligrams, representing the element of stone, Jwala Mai contributes to Bon practitioners’ view of Muktinath as a rare place where all of the sacred elements of their religion come together.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://hal.science/hal-03112094/document">Buddhist complex</a>, Muktinath is more commonly referred to as “Chumig-Gyatsa,” or the Hundred Waters, and the icon that is worshipped by Hindus as Vishnu is venerated by Buddhists as Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. In 2016, Muktinath also became home to the <a href="https://nepalnews.com/s/travel-and-tourism/35-feet-tall-buddha-statue-on-mustang">largest statue of the Buddha</a> ever built in Nepal.</p>
<h2>Climate change and Shaligrams</h2>
<p>These traditions then come together to provide a place to ritually welcome all of the new Shaligrams that have just been taken from the water into the lives of the people who venerate them. But Shaligrams are becoming rarer.</p>
<p>Climate change, faster glacial melting, and <a href="https://cot.unhas.ac.id/journals/index.php/ialt_lti/article/view/888">gravel mining in the Kali Gandaki</a> are changing the course of the river, which means fewer Shaligrams are appearing each year. This is mainly because the Kali Gandaki is fed by meltwater from the Southern Tibetan Plateau. But with the glacier disappearing, the river is becoming smaller and shifting away from the fossil beds that contain the ammonites needed to become Shaligrams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A snow capped mountain with blue clouds in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kali Gandaki riverbed near the village of Kagbeni.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>For the moment, though, the majority of pilgrims are still able to find at least a few Shaligrams every time they travel to Mustang, but it’s getting harder. Even so, once the new Shaligrams are introduced to worship at Muktinath, it is time for pilgrims to leave Mustang and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/717110">return home</a>. </p>
<p>For many, this is a bittersweet moment that marks the birth of their new household deities into the family but also means that they will be leaving the beauty of the high Himalayas and the place where deities come to Earth. </p>
<p>But all the pilgrims, me included, look forward to the days when we can return to walk the pilgrimage paths again, hopeful that Shaligrams will still appear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Walters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Hindus, Buddhists and people who follow the shamanic religion of Bon undertake a pilgrimage each year to northern Nepal to look for Shaligrams, believed to be a manifestation of Lord Vishnu.Holly Walters, Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885242022-08-26T05:37:43Z2022-08-26T05:37:43ZSacred Aboriginal sites are yet again at risk in the Pilbara. But tourism can help protect Australia’s rich cultural heritage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480862/original/file-20220824-14-9q4zfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C1270%2C720&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traditional Owner and co-author Clinton Walker</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">City of Karratha</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An application from Traditional Owners to block the construction of a fertiliser plant near ancient rock art in the Pilbara <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-24/perdaman-fertiliser-traditional-owners-sacred-sites-rock-art/101363542">was denied</a> by the federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek this week. This decision is deeply concerning, and points to a much larger problem with Indigenous heritage management.</p>
<p>Plibersek says she went with the views of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation in making her decision, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-23/plibersek-will-not-block-perdaman-fertiliser-plant-/101360350">calling it</a> the “most representative organisation on cultural knowledge” in the region. Yet, she <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/environment-minister-won-t-intervene-on-burrup-plant/101359854">also acknowledged</a> that these views don’t represent all Traditional Owner perspectives in the area. </p>
<p>Save Our Songlines, a separate organisation of Murujuga Traditional Owners, oppose the fertiliser plant, which they say poses a threat to sacred rock art sites. <a href="https://www.saveoursonglines.org/post/tanya-plibersek-fails-to-protect-murujuga">They say</a> the minister’s decision is “based on faulty reasoning and false conclusions”. </p>
<p>In 2020, the world reacted in horror when Rio Tinto <a href="https://theconversation.com/rio-tinto-just-blasted-away-an-ancient-aboriginal-site-heres-why-that-was-allowed-139466">lawfully</a> destroyed Juukan Gorge – sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in the Pilbara some 46,000 years old. Broader community understanding of the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges for looking after Country can help us avoid repeating this tragedy. Tourism and community education is an important way to do that.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1561902261571203078"}"></div></p>
<h2>‘Enough is enough’</h2>
<p>The A$4.5 billion Perdaman fertiliser plant will be constructed in the World Heritage nominated <a href="https://exploreparks.dbca.wa.gov.au/park/murujuga-national-park">Murujuga National Park</a> in Western Australia. It is home to the world’s largest rock art gallery, with more than 1 million images scattered across the entire Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago.</p>
<p>As many as <a href="https://www.saveoursonglines.org/post/tanya-plibersek-fails-to-protect-murujuga">20 sacred sites</a> may be impacted by the plant, according to Save Our Songlines. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rio-tinto-just-blasted-away-an-ancient-aboriginal-site-heres-why-that-was-allowed-139466">Rio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed</a>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/environment-minister-won-t-intervene-on-burrup-plant/101359854">an interview</a> with ABC Radio National, Plibersek said the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation have agreed that some of these rock carvings can be moved safely, and others can be protected on site even if the plant goes ahead. </p>
<p>However, the situation isn’t so clear cut. For example, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-26/aboriginal-custodians-concerns-in-letter-to-government/101370394?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=abc_news_newsmail_am_sfmc&utm_term=&utm_id=1930785&sfmc_id=281363065">the ABC revealed</a> on Thursday that the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation refused permission to move the rock art sites multiple times, preferring they remain undisturbed. Elders finally agreed after receiving advice that this wasn’t possible. </p>
<p>This isn’t the first time we’ve seen issues regarding consultation processes with Traditional Owners, such as during the notorious <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/battle-for-the-kimberley-20120523-1z5fb.html">battle for the Kimberley</a> against a major gas plant in 2012.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChTMmG5gr3j/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Traditional Owner and co-author Clinton Walker has been sharing his intimate knowledge of the Pilbara with visitors through his tourism venture <a href="https://www.ngurrangga.com.au/">Ngurrangga Tours</a> for the past 11 years. He has the cultural authority and capacity to speak for his Country. </p>
<p>Clinton was a signatory on the <a href="https://www.saveoursonglines.org/post/open-letter-from-murujuga-custodians">open letter from Traditional Owners and Custodians of Murujuga</a> concerning threats to cultural heritage in the area. He describes the potential impact of the fertiliser plant:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This hill is a very very sacred site to my people. If they build their plant here we’re not gonna have the same access we do now to go visit our rock art and teach our kids and family their culture. </p>
<p>This impact is going to damage our culture and it will damage us as the Traditional Owners because we’re connected to these sites in a spiritual way. I want people to know how important these sites are. We need to protect them. Enough is enough.</p>
</blockquote>
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<h2>The need for consent</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024757/toc_pdf/AWayForward.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">federal inquiry into the Juukan Gorge</a> disaster <a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-inquiry-puts-rio-tinto-on-notice-but-without-drastic-reforms-it-could-happen-again-151377">highlighted</a> the need for free, prior and informed consent from any affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group.</p>
<p>The inquiry also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-12/juukan-gorge-blast-inquiry-told-of-rio-tinto-gag-clauses-warning/12754100">called for</a> the removal of so-called “gag clauses” from land-use agreements, which prevent Aboriginal people from speaking out against developers.</p>
<p>Save Our Songlines Traditional Owners say principles from the inquiry aren’t being upheld, and are concerned <a href="https://www.nit.com.au/the-six-clauses-traditional-owners-say-gag-them-from-raising-murujuga-concerns/">gag clauses</a> are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/24/indigenous-elders-in-wa-say-gag-clause-denies-them-a-say-in-industrial-developments-on-their-land">silencing members of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation</a>. </p>
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<p>We find it deeply problematic that Plibersek did not acknowledge these concerns around gag clauses in announcing her approval of the fertiliser plant. It is the role of the government to keep industry accountable for their obligations to abide by <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00937">Indigenous heritage laws</a> and to ensure proper consultation processes are undertaken. </p>
<p>This decision is also not in line with the federal government’s vocal commitment to the environment and to <a href="https://alp-assets.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/documents/ALP_FIRST_NATIONS_PEOPLES_2022.pdf">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs</a> prior to winning the election.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.majala.com.au/news/lawful-but-awful">submission to the United Nations</a> about how to “decolonise our legal system”, Nyikina Warrwa Indigenous leader and respected researcher <a href="https://www.notredame.edu.au/research/nulungu/staff/Anne-Poelina">Professor Anne Poelina</a> said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Lawful Laws which are awful, are enabled as lawful, what chance do Indigenous people and our lands, water, lifeways, and livelihoods stand against destruction? </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-inquiry-puts-rio-tinto-on-notice-but-without-drastic-reforms-it-could-happen-again-151377">Juukan Gorge inquiry puts Rio Tinto on notice, but without drastic reforms, it could happen again</a>
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<h2>Understanding Indigenous connection to Country</h2>
<p>Non-Indigenous people need to better understand the <a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">importance of Country</a> for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Classrooms are a good place to start.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1177180120929688">Deficits in the Australian education system</a> have led to poor knowledge and frequent and pervasive misunderstandings of Aboriginal people, places and cultures. A <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/white-australias-hangover/">psychological hangover</a> from White Australia’s assimilation policies persists.</p>
<p>When school education doesn’t provide accurate and truthful accounts of Australian histories, <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/State-of-Reconciliation-2021-Full-Report_web.pdf">harmful stereotypes are left unchallenged</a>.</p>
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<p>Clinton Walker describes a common response from visitors on his tours showcasing the culture, Country and history of the Pilbara:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People say ‘how the hell don’t we know that? Why have we never learnt this stuff?’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Improvements in education have been slow. For example, the Australian Institute for Teacher and School Leadership only released their report “<a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/intercultural-development/building-a-culturally-responsive-australian-teaching-workforce">Building a culturally responsive Australian teaching workforce</a>” in June this year.</p>
<p>Resources to support teachers are said to be scheduled for release in the coming months.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-students-need-culturally-safe-spaces-at-their-universities-175521">First Nations students need culturally safe spaces at their universities</a>
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<h2>Learn about Country through tourism</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.welcometocountry.com/">Tourism is one context</a> where the visibility and recognition of Indigenous people as knowledge-holders can be promoted and celebrated. </p>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism operators are delivering truthful accounts of Australian history and telling their stories of their connection to Country and culture. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468797620987688">This work is an emotional labour</a> as they challenge entrenched colonial narratives. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/ChoUeN_vM-p/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Indigenous tourism operators are <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-word-practising-reconciliation-through-indigenous-knowledge-sharing-in-tourism-158563">agents of reconciliation</a>. Operators speak about wanting to educate visitors to build awareness of social and environmental issues facing their communities. The potential destruction of cultural sites at Murujuga is one such issue. </p>
<p>Ongoing research from lead-author Nicole Curtin involves conversations with Aboriginal tourism operators and their visitors. It finds that deep listening is required for visitors to interrogate their own biases and privileges during their tourism experience. Visitors must be willing to “go and sit and learn” about Indigenous sovereignty and knowledges in their own lives. </p>
<p>Indeed, an enhanced sense of connection to our local communities may help to drive people to speak out about the destruction of sites of environmental and cultural significance.</p>
<p>Raising community awareness to fuel social momentum is one way of exerting pressure on decision makers to protect Australia’s rich cultural heritage and environment.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">'Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them': 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC's call to Heal Country</a>
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<hr>
<p><em>We acknowledge the Bininj, Larrakia, Noongar, Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi and Yawuru peoples as the Traditional Owners of Country where this article, and our research, was conducted and written. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Curtin is an associate member of the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council. She is also a member of Reconciliation WA. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clinton Walker is the owner of Ngurrangga Tours. He is a board member of Brida and the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracy Woodroffe is affiliated with Charles Darwin University and a lecturer in the College of Indigenous Futures, Arts & Education (CIFEA). Tracy is an associate supervisor for the author Nicole Curtin.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Wallace is affiliated with Charles Darwin University and the Director of the Northern Institute, a social and policy research institute in the Northern Territory. Ruth is an associate supervisor for the author Nicole Curtin. </span></em></p>A major fertiliser plant is set to be constructed in the Pilbara, potentially impacting as many as 20 ancient rock art sites.Nicole Curtin, PhD Candidate, Charles Darwin UniversityClinton Walker, Tourism operator, Indigenous KnowledgeTracy Woodroffe, Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1239192019-11-05T18:58:02Z2019-11-05T18:58:02ZChurches have legal rights in Australia. Why not sacred trees?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299815/original/file-20191101-102224-1otykcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C125%2C2385%2C1325&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The traditional owners have won widespread support for their fight to protect Djab Wurrung Country and their sacred trees.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dwembassy.com/numbers-flock-to-djab-wurrung-embassy/">Djab Wurrung Embassy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/anzsee-78179">series</a> on rebalancing the human–nature interactions that are central to the study and practice of ecological economics, which is the focus of the <a href="https://anzsee.org.au/2019-anzsee-conference/">2019 ANZSEE Conference</a> in Melbourne later this month.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-all-have-to-compromise-western-highway-works-to-start-in-days-20191003-p52xa3.html">Work has resumed</a> on widening the Western Highway near Ararat, Victoria, which will destroy thousands of trees. This includes around 250 sacred trees, some up to 800 years old. These trees are a <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/july/1561989600/sophie-cunningham/djab-wurrung-birthing-tree">living heritage of deep cultural significance and practice</a> for the Djab Wurrung traditional owners.</p>
<p>In Australia, corporations such as Coles and Westpac and even some churches operate as legal entities entitled to most of the rights and responsibilities that individuals possess. Why don’t the Djab Wurrung sacred trees have legal standing? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-state-values-a-freeways-heritage-above-the-heritage-of-our-oldest-living-culture-122195">What kind of state values a freeway's heritage above the heritage of our oldest living culture?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In New Zealand, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/nz-whanganui-river-gets-legal-status-as-person-after-170-years/8358434">Whanganui River</a> now has it. Even in Victoria <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/51dea49770555ea6ca256da4001b90cd/DD1ED871D7DF8661CA2581A700103BF0/$FILE/17-049aa%20authorised.pdf">legislation to protect the Yarra River</a> recognises the connection of the traditional owners to the river and surrounding land, Birrarung Country. </p>
<h2>It’s not just people who have legal standing</h2>
<p>Australian law has long accorded legal standing to other entities such as businesses. Under the <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca2001172/">Corporations Act 2001</a>, a corporation is a legal entity that can enter contracts, lend and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets, and pay taxes. Over the past few decades corporate rights have expanded, and the process of incorporation has been simplified.</p>
<p>Corporations exist now as private enterprises for churches, not-for-profits and lobby groups. A corporation is separate and distinct from its owners, which minimises the risk for stakeholders and investors. It operates as a living person who can assert their rights in relation to economic (self)-interest. </p>
<p>The logic of <em>Homo economicus</em> and the utilitarian maximisation of profit is central to settler societies such as Australia’s. The settler colonial approach to nature decouples people from country. There is a hierarchy of rights that favours and reinforces settler property rights in the quest for new towns, farms, fences, and transportation lines. </p>
<p>If trees had rights this would be very costly for development. Trees are seen as resources, classified according to their utilitarian value. </p>
<h2>Who speaks for the trees?</h2>
<p>In Australia, the law protects trees if they are considered threatened, endangered or vulnerable. Indigenous plant species, for example, may be protected under the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/about">Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999</a>. </p>
<p>Vegetation may be protected more broadly as part of the public estate (such as in national parks, for instance). Native vegetation on private land may also be protected to conserve biodiversity and preserve habitat for endangered species. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299816/original/file-20191101-102228-1ba7h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recognition of the role of traditional owners, which includes protection of Country, is a key issue of environmental justice in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dwembassy.com/gallery/">Djab Wurrung Embassy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Federal and state government laws may protect “significant” trees through heritage and/or Aboriginal heritage legislation. Or they may not.</p>
<p>The Djab Wurrung have challenged both state and federal government decisions against heritage protection for the sacred trees and their surrounds. <a href="https://dwembassy.com/">Activists</a> have set up camp to protest the destruction of the trees – grandmother <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/july/1561989600/sophie-cunningham/djab-wurrung-birthing-tree">birthing trees</a>, their companion grandfather trees, and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/like-losing-my-son-why-trees-threatened-by-western-hwy-are-so-sacred-20190824-p52kcq.html">directions trees</a>. </p>
<p>They reject the rationale that supports the widening of a freeway over the preservation of significant living cultural heritage and <a href="https://www.change.org/p/daniel-andrews-protect-sacred-djapwurrung-birthing-trees-from-expansion-of-the-western-hwy-by-vicroads">ask for its protection</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We ask that this impending destruction as part of VicRoads works be halted immediately, more appropriate respect for the concerns of the Djab Wuurung community be taken into consideration, and that the trees and the site are protected.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Should trees have legal standing?</h2>
<p>In New Zealand, the Whanganui River, which flows 145 kilometres to the sea in the central North Island, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/04/maori-river-in-new-zealand-is-a-legal-person/">now has legal standing</a>. The law recognises the Maori Iwi people’s sacred relationship with land and water. </p>
<p>Through this <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2014/0051/latest/DLM6183601.html">legislation</a> the Whanganui River is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/new-zealand-granting-rivers-and-forests-same-rights-as-citizens/7816456">recognised as a person</a> when it comes to the law. The river has “its own legal identity with all the corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person”, the minister for Treaty of Waitangi negotiations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/nz-whanganui-river-gets-legal-status-as-person-after-170-years/8358434">This legislation recognises</a> the deep spiritual connection between the Whanganui Iwi and its ancestral river and creates a strong platform for the future of Whanganui River.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similar “<a href="https://www.earthlaws.org.au/what-is-earth-jurisprudence/rights-of-nature/">rights of nature</a>” laws, which change the legal status of nature, exist in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, India, and Uganda, to name a few.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">Three rivers are now legally people – but that's just the start of looking after them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Djab Wurrung Dreaming is entitled to protection</h2>
<p>Why isn’t Australia embracing “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-giving-legal-rights-to-nature-could-help-reduce-toxic-algae-blooms-in-lake-erie-115351">rights of nature</a>” legislation? Djab Wurrung trees, and the ancient dreaming cultural landscape of which they are part, need protection.</p>
<p>Communities are starting to advocate for the rights of nature to exist, thrive and evolve. Under the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/51dea49770555ea6ca256da4001b90cd/DD1ED871D7DF8661CA2581A700103BF0/$FILE/17-049aa%20authorised.pdf">Yarra River (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act</a>, while the river’s legal status hasn’t changed, there is progressive recognition of the connection between the traditional owners and the river. As the preamble to the act <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/yrpbma2017554/preamble.html">states</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This Act recognises the intrinsic connection of the traditional owners to the Yarra River and its Country and further recognises them as the custodians of the land and waterway which they call Birrarung.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-law-finally-gives-voice-to-the-yarra-rivers-traditional-owners-83307">New law finally gives voice to the Yarra River's traditional owners</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such Indigenous perspectives, developed on Country in holistic ways incorporating lore/law, have a particularly valuable contribution to make to ecological economies. </p>
<p>We need far better legal recognition of the role of traditional owners, which includes cultural and environmental heritage protection. In the current political environment, deeply locked into a culture and mindset of economic growth and property ownership, “you’d have to be dreaming”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Steele receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Maloney is Co-Founder and Director of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and the New Economy Network Australia.</span></em></p>Laws in other countries recognise ‘rights of nature’. But even trees sacred to Indigenous Australian communities have no special protection.Wendy Steele, Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research and Urban Futures Enabling Capability Platform, RMIT UniversityMichelle Maloney, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1221952019-08-22T03:12:59Z2019-08-22T03:12:59ZWhat kind of state values a freeway’s heritage above the heritage of our oldest living culture?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288983/original/file-20190822-170914-7agtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The government intends to destroy Djab Wurrung sacred trees and sites to upgrade the Western Highway at the same time as it seeks heritage status for the Eastern Freeway.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gofundme.com/support-towards-djap-wurrung-embassy">Allies Decolonising/gofundme</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Victorian government has announced it is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/government-seeks-heritage-protection-for-notoriously-jammed-freeway-20190820-p52j43.html">seeking heritage listing for parts of the Eastern Freeway</a> in Melbourne. We heard this news on Wednesday as we sat under a <a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/struggle-save-birthing-trees">grandfather tree</a> in solidarity with Djab Wurrung people whose cultural heritage is being threatened by the same government.</p>
<p>A Major Road Projects Victoria proposal to extend the Western Highway will destroy sacred Djab Wurrung trees and places. They <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/how-a-community-created-an-embassy-to-save-sacred-land-from-bulldozing">have been protecting these trees</a> for more than a year, but <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/protester-numbers-surge-at-sacred-tree-site-as-eviction-clash-looms-20190821-p52jh7.html">faced eviction</a> – from their own Country – by today’s deadline. All this is happening as the government is conducting <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/06/21/victorian-treaty-bill-passes-through-upper-house">treaty negotiations across the state</a>.</p>
<p>What kind of world do we live in when freeways are valued as of greater cultural significance than the practice of the oldest living culture in the world? Threatening to evict Djab Wurrung while proposing heritage status for the Eastern Freeway is a surreal perversion of law, heritage and community value.</p>
<p>These matters raise important questions about how cultural heritage value is determined and by whom. They also attest to the continued power of roads and transport infrastructure in a climate-changing world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest ‘road signs’ at the camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">artwork by Mick Douglas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Scorning an ancient cultural heritage</h2>
<p>The proposal to expand the Western Highway has been around for decades. The on-Country presence of Djab Wurrung people was sparked when it became clear the new duplicated section between Buangor and Ararat would destroy their sacred trees, which include an important <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2019/04/17/demolition-800-year-old-sacred-trees-compared-notre-dame-fire">directions tree and birthing site</a>. </p>
<p>This is not merely about protecting individual trees – some of which are up to 800 years old. It’s about the way those trees relate to each other, the landscape, Djab Wurrung people and their law, which have been here for thousands of generations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1066064594005880832"}"></div></p>
<p>Victoria supposedly has a legislative system for protecting this Aboriginal heritage. The government asserts that it has followed the “due process” of this system in relation to the Djab Wurrung trees. The fact that Djab Wurrung Elders and leaders have been protesting on site for the past 15 months raises serious questions about what constitutes “due process”. </p>
<p>Many concerns <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-21/western-highway-tree-protesters-may-be-arrested-this-week/11420640?sf217857042=1&fbclid=IwAR2E-MbmLkZhQ5u_ljoK4n13tRR58B5MZyrlPiHgmfVHyAJXVrB3o7-i00Y">have been raised</a> about a flawed system. At the very least, it has been exposed as a blunt instrument clearly not sensitive enough to cope with these complexities. </p>
<p>Not only is the government unwilling to negotiate on Country in good faith, Djab Wurrung people are being actively silenced and criminalised. One of the leaders, Zellanach Djab Mara, was recently held on remand for 26 days on a charge of driving without a licence, which his supporters saw as <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/05/27/system-oppression-djab-wurrung-protector-released">a move to “get him off Country”</a>. A magistrate later <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/05/27/system-oppression-djab-wurrung-protector-released">said</a> Zellanach’s time in custody was too long for a minor offence.</p>
<p>But Djab Wurrung people will not be silenced. <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/standoff-over-800-year-old-sacred-indigenous-trees-heats-up-as-work-crews-move-in">More than 500 people</a> arrived at <a href="https://dwembassy.com/">the camp</a> on Wednesday in solidarity. The campaign has gained <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/world/australia/djab-wurrung-trees.html">international media attention</a> and more than 130,000 people have <a href="https://www.change.org/p/daniel-andrews-protect-sacred-djapwurrung-birthing-trees-from-expansion-of-the-western-hwy-by-vicroads">signed a petition</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hundreds of supporters gather at Djab Wurrung embassy camp on Wednesday, August 21.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Megan Williams, used with permission</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Celebrating 50 years of freeway culture</h2>
<p>Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway certainly has history, a notorious one. Traversing Wurundjeri Country, its construction caused massive destruction of Wurundjeri places and heritage. It also displaced working-class communities in inner Melbourne, triggering one of Australia’s <a href="http://www.ycat.org.au/1977-the-battle-of-alexandra-parade/3/">most significant anti-freeway campaigns</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tony-birch-105618">Tony Birch</a> has <a href="https://griffithreview.com/articles/recovering-narrative-place-stories-climate-change-tony-birch/">written eloquently</a> about the scar the Eastern Freeway created psychologically and geographically. The damage included:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] obliteration of a vital section of the river at its confluence with the Merri Creek, a once majestic waterway winding its way into the north across Wurundjeri land.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But these are not the histories the government seeks to honour by heritage-listing the Eastern Freeway. These histories are silenced <a href="https://northeastlink.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/364187/NELP-EES-Technical-report-K-Historical-heritage.pdf">in favour of bridge design</a>. Just like the concurrent attempt at erasing Djab Wurrung heritage. Listing the Eastern Freeway would assert that the destruction such roads create is something we collectively value as heritage. </p>
<h2>Heritage in an upside-down world</h2>
<p>Both these decisions expose just how upside-down and perverse our way of collectively cherishing place and heritage has become. And both advance a transport system that continues to encourage high-carbon mobility, despite Victoria’s <a href="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/legislation/climate-change-act-2017">legislated commitment</a> to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.</p>
<p>A viable and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cheaper-western-highway-route-overlooked-former-vicroads-advisor-says-20190820-p52j0n.html">cheaper route for the Western Highway duplication</a> is available, just as a viable alternative to the Eastern Freeway once existed. </p>
<p>Road safety is vital, certainly. But surely it would be better achieved by reducing freight traffic on roads, rather than enabling everyone to drive faster. Freight rail offers an alternative solution to some of the key issues that advocates of the Western Highway project use to justify it. </p>
<p>It is possible to have highway safety and efficient mobility at the same time as protecting sacred places and actual cultural heritage through genuine processes.</p>
<p>Proposing a freeway for heritage listing is a clear statement of a government willing to cherry-pick what counts as heritage. As Djab Wurrung Traditional Owner and former state MP for Northcote <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2019/08/17/protecting-the-djab-wurrung-trees/15659640008626">Lidia Thorpe asserts</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The protection of high cultural and natural values must be part of any treaty process, rather than brazenly destroying those values while the treaty process is under way. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A way forward</h2>
<p>We call on the Victorian government to immediately establish a respectful dialogue with Djab Wurrung people by accepting their invitation to come to Country and talk with Elders and leaders in good faith. To do so the threat of eviction must be immediately withdrawn. As Zellenach said to us while we were at camp, “no one can effectively negotiate while under duress”.</p>
<p>If the Victorian government is serious about Treaty, this is the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of what respectful recognition of Indigenous sovereignty looks like.</p>
<p>The world is watching.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign at the Djab Wurrung embassy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Blanche Verlie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Marianne (Ria) Jago at the Victorian Women’s Legal Service is a collaborator on this article.</em></p>
<p><em>We wrote this article on Djab Wurrung Country at the invitation of Djab Wurrung people to help protect their Country. We pay respects to Djab Wurrung Elders past, present and emerging and the sovereign Aboriginal peoples on whose lands we each live and work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Libby Porter receives funding from Australia Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Lay is affiliated with Earthworker as a Board member and past member of the Greens. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marianne Jago is senior policy advisor with the Women's Legal Service Victoria.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amaara Raheem, Blanche Verlie, and Mick Douglas do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Victorian government plans to destroy trees and sites sacred to Djab Warrung people to make way for the Western Highway at the same time as it seeks heritage listing for the Eastern Freeway.Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT UniversityAmaara Raheem, PhD Candidate, School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT UniversityBlanche Verlie, Associate Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityBronwyn Lay, Coordinator, Climate Change Research and Practice Hub, RMIT UniversityMarianne Jago, Adjunct Research Fellow, Environmental Management, James Cook UniversityMick Douglas, Associate Professor, School of Design, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021112018-09-20T06:29:49Z2018-09-20T06:29:49ZAboriginal people lived in Australia’s desert interior 50,000 years ago, earlier than first thought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233561/original/file-20180825-149493-1wh5y68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=294%2C0%2C5168%2C2629&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Karnatukul during excavation in 2014, note the square holes dug below the rock walls..</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Veth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New evidence shows that people have lived inland in Western Australia for more than 50,000 years. That’s 10,000 years earlier than previously known for Australian deserts. </p>
<p>The finding comes from archaeological work performed at the request of the traditional custodians of the land, and published today in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202511">PLOS One</a>.</p>
<p>The research took place at the desert rock shelter site of Karnatukul (previously known as Serpent’s Glen), around 800 kilometres southeast of Exmouth - more than 1,000km from where the coastline would have been at this earlier time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-in-australia-100830">When did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It shows that people occupied the sandy deserts of interior Australia very soon after settling the <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">north of the continent</a> more than 50,000 years ago.</p>
<p>The paper reports some of the earliest evidence of people living in deserts, not just in Australia, but anywhere in the world.</p>
<h2>Excavations old and new</h2>
<p>Karnatukul was first <a href="https://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/OConnor-et-al-1998.pdf">investigated</a> by archaeologists in the 1990s. At that time it became known as the oldest Western Desert site, occupied at least 25,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Our current excavation was undertaken to better understand more recent occupation evidence. We were trying to understand pigment art that was produced at the site during the past <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440314000910?via%3Dihub">1,000 years</a>. </p>
<p>As well as finding rich evidence for a range of activities in recent times, our investigation doubled the earliest known occupation dates for this site.</p>
<p>Charcoal associated with artefacts was recovered in two squares dug beneath the site’s main rock art panel. Both squares returned similar archaeological sequences - both with their earliest radiocarbon determinations hovering close to the radiocarbon technical dating barrier which is 50,000 years.</p>
<h2>Early tool shows technological innovation</h2>
<p>More than 25,000 stone artefacts were recovered from the current excavations of Karnatukul, along with pigments, charcoal from many hearths, and a small amount of animal remains - a glimpse into the diet of the site’s occupants. Most of these remains date to the last millennium. </p>
<p>But one of our significant finds shows these early desert peoples were technological innovators. An early backed microlith – a pointed tool with one sharp edge blunted with small flakes, called backing - was found in deposits dated to around 43,000 years ago. Such tools are used as either <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/the-first-archaeological-evidence-for-death-by-spearing-in-australia/E7C597E0CF13DBA8EF76738797BE3101">a spear barb</a> or for processing wood and other organic materials. </p>
<p>This tool is at least 15,000 years older than other known Australian examples. Other specimens have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-of-early-human-life-in-australias-arid-interior-67933">recovered</a> from the arid zone in South Australia, dated to around 24,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Microscopic analysis of residues and working edges on this tool reveal it was fastened by resin to a composite implement (such as to a wooden handle) and it broke <a href="https://australianmuseum.net.au/image/stone-tools-hafting">in that haft</a>, presumably while being used. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Backed artefact dated to 43,000 years ago showing evidence of use on its working edge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These technological adaptations - backing and hafting - are much earlier than had been previously demonstrated in Australia. </p>
<p>These types of tools were produced in enormous quantities across most of southern and eastern Australia, in the recent past. Indeed, Karnatukul has a large collection (more than 50) of this tool type dating to the last millennium, when the site was used as a home base. </p>
<h2>Adapting to a changed environment</h2>
<p>It has been argued <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ap3a.2002.12.1.163">previously</a> that these specialised tools became more common as a people responded to increased climatic volatility and less secure food resources, with an intensified El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) regime after 4,000 years ago.</p>
<p>These current findings support the notion that the First Australians adapted with ingenuity and flexibility as they quickly dispersed into every bioregion across the country.</p>
<p>For instance, evidence for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03122417.2016.1164379">the earliest ground-edged axe</a> use in the world comes from the Kimberley. </p>
<p>The very early presence of people in the interior deserts of Australia, as well as their very early use of a backed microlith, changes how we understand the adaptive and technological sophistication of early Aboriginal peoples.</p>
<p>The arid zone has often been characterised as an extreme environment occupied only by transient dwellers. Several European explorers perished in their early attempts to explore and traverse Australia’s arid core.</p>
<h2>Cultural connections to the land</h2>
<p>The site is in the remote Carnarvon Ranges of the Western Desert. Known as Katjarra, these ranges are at the heart of <a href="https://www.nativetitle.org.au/find/pbc/7321">Mungarlu Ngurrarankatja Rirraunkaja</a> ngurra (country), in the <a href="https://www.centraldesert.org.au/program-region-item/birriliburu">Birriliburu</a> Indigenous Protected Area (<a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/environment/indigenous-protected-areas-ipas">IPA</a>). Located in the Little Sandy Desert, this remote IPA covers an area the size of Tasmania.</p>
<p>Katjarra is of very high cultural significance to its traditional custodians. </p>
<p>This archaeological evidence for the earliest desert peoples in Australia was found within 100m of the place where the Federal Court convened in 2008 for the Birriliburu Native Title Determination.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(Then) Justice Robert French at the Birriliburu Native Title determination in 2008 presenting senior custodians with a statement of the determination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the site is also only about 40km from the historic Canning Stock Route (CSR), a 1,800km track forged through the sandy deserts by Alfred Canning in 1906-07, reliant on numerous Aboriginal water sources, identified and named for for him by local Aboriginal people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Location of Karnatukul, in the Carnarvon Ranges (Katjarra), near the Canning Stock Route.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of the CSR, the Carnarvon Ranges have been at risk of unwitting damage from tourists – as modern desert crusaders travel this <a href="https://permits.canningstockroute.net.au/">challenging and remote 4WD track</a>. For example, many of the site’s surface grindstones - used for millennia to process seeds - have been collected and used by tourists to make camp fires, and there is graffiti where some travellers felt it necessary to add their names to rock features. </p>
<p>The Carnarvon Ranges are currently closed to unaccompanied tourists. The custodians have a responsibility for the safety of visitors on their country, intrinsically tied to the duty of ensuring that people do not unknowingly visit restricted and culturally powerful sites.</p>
<p>So the challenge now is how to protect this site of ancient occupation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/time-to-honour-a-historical-legend-50-years-since-the-discovery-of-mungo-lady-97785">Time to honour a historical legend: 50 years since the discovery of Mungo Lady</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Birriliburu IPA has a management plan for this vast cultural and natural desert estate. Traditional Owners and younger rangers work in this IPA to care for country and to continue their long-held connections to this place.</p>
<p>Guided tours of this highly significant area with traditional custodians would ensure the protection of heritage places and visitors, as well as providing for sustainable tourism opportunities. </p>
<p>That way, people would still be able to experience a place that revolutionises our understanding of the first Australians who made one of the world’s driest continents their home. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional custodians celebrate the Birriliburu determination in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo McDonald receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She held the Rio Tinto Chair of Rock Art Studies from 2012-2017.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Veth receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Kimberley Foundation Australia.</span></em></p>They were looking to study rock art at a remote desert site but what they found showed people had been using the place almost since the first people arrived in Australia.Jo McDonald, Director, Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western AustraliaPeter Veth, Kimberley Chair in Rock Art and Professor of Australian Archaeology, Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013002018-08-14T10:32:51Z2018-08-14T10:32:51ZWhy Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231707/original/file-20180813-2900-3r5g53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People protest the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/history/local-law/FHPL_IndianRelFreAct.pdf">American Indian Religious Freedom Act</a> so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected. This came after a 500-year-long <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803215306/">history of conquest</a> and coercive conversion to Christianity had forced Native Americans from their homelands.</p>
<p>Today, their religious practice is threatened all over again. On Dec. 4, 2017, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/trump-bears-ears.html">reduced</a> the Bears Ears National Monument, an area sacred to Native Americans in Utah, by over 1 million acres. Bears Ears Monument is only one example of the conflict over places of religious value. Many other such <a href="http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/08/08/breaking-news/hawaii-supreme-court-rules-against-thirty-meter-telescope-opponent-seeking-contested-case-hearing/">sacred sites</a> are being viewed as potential areas for development, threatening the free practice of Native American faith. </p>
<p>While Congress created the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to provide “access to sacred sites,” it has been open to interpretation. Native Americans still struggle to protect their sacred lands.</p>
<h2>Land-based religions</h2>
<p>Native Americans have land-based religions, which means they practice their religion within specific geographic locations. As Joseph Toledo, a Jemez Pueblo tribal leader, says, <a href="https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/spiritual-leaders-unite-support-bears-ears-national-monument/">sacred sites are like churches</a>; they are “places of great healing and magnetism.”</p>
<p>Some of these places, as in the case of <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears National Monument</a>, are within federal public lands. As a Native American <a href="https://www.rosalynlapier.com/">scholar</a>, I have visited many of these places and felt their power. </p>
<p>For thousands of years, tribes have used Bears Ears for <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/04/17/a-spiritual-reason-utah-tribes-want-to-protect-bears-ears-its-their-eden-and-plays-into-their-stories-of-the-creation/">rituals</a>, ceremonies and collecting medicines used for healing. The different tribes – the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe and the Pueblo of Zuni – have worked to protect the land. Together they set up a nongovernmental organization, the <a href="https://bearsearscoalition.org/">Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition</a> to help conserve the landscape in 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231711/original/file-20180813-2915-181ljec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Native American tribes believe Bears Ears is the last of undisturbed sacred lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/14723335@N05/24994537767">Mark Stevens</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tribes believe Bears Ears is one of the last large undisturbed areas in the lower 48 states and contains the spirits of those who once lived there. Bears Ears Navajo elder <a href="https://savingplaces.org/stories/mark-maryboy-personal-reflection-bears-ears-national-monument#.W2yUOdVKjX6">Mark Maryboy</a> emphasized, “It’s very important that we protect the earth, the plants, and special ceremonial places in Bears Ears for future generations — not just for Native Americans, but for everybody.” </p>
<h2>Sacred landscape</h2>
<p>My great-grandparents, Páyotayàkχkumei and Kayetså’χkumi, (translated as Aims-while-flying-through-the-air and Hollering-in-the-air), were well-known <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496201508/">religious leaders</a> on the Blackfeet reservation. They lived in the foothills of the south side of the reservation. However, they went into the mountains and onto public lands in an area now called the Badger-Two Medicine in northcentral Montana to practice their religion. </p>
<p>My great-grandfather traveled into Badger canyon to trap eagles and gather their feathers which he used in ceremonies and for divine protection. My great-grandmother gathered medicinal plants used in healing ceremonies. Together they prayed and sought solitude in this sacred landscape.</p>
<p>Similar to Bears Ears, the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/hlcnf/about-forest/?cid=fseprd500268">Badger-Two Medicine</a>, a 130,000-acre area within the Lewis and Clark National Forest, became embroiled in a controversy over potential natural resource development between 1982 and 2017. The Blackfeet tribe argued that these lands were sacred. And that tribal members, such as my great-grandparents, had used these lands for years for spiritual purposes.</p>
<p>The Blackfeet tribe ultimately succeeded in stopping development, but only after a <a href="http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Detail/2327/many%20nations%20under%20many%20gods">35-year-long fight</a> with the Department of Interior, which initially approved almost 50 oil and gas leases. In 2017 Interior Secretary Jewell <a href="https://www.blm.gov/press-release/interior-department-cancels-remaining-oil-and-gas-leases-montanas-badger-two-medicine">canceled</a> the last of these leases. This means these public lands will not be used for natural resource development in the future. </p>
<p>Now my family and other Blackfeet, who have used the Badger-Two Medicine for millennia, can use these public lands for their religious practice in solitude.</p>
<h2>Forty years later</h2>
<p>The reality is, however, that not every dispute between tribes and the U.S. government ends up in favor of the tribes. Historically, Native American tribes have struggled to explain why certain landscapes are sacred for them. </p>
<p>In 1988, just 10 years after the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the Supreme Court considered a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/485/439">case involving the construction of a U.S. Forest Service road</a> through undeveloped federal lands sacred to northern California tribes in the Six Rivers National Forest.</p>
<p>The lower court had ruled in favor of the Yurok, Karok and Tolowa tribes stating the road would impact their religious practice. </p>
<p>However, the Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling that building a road through a sacred landscape would not prohibit the tribes “free exercise” of religion. </p>
<p>The tribes lost, because the Supreme Court viewed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act as a policy and not a law with legal protections. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the road was not built because Congress stepped in and added this sacred area to the existing <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/srnf/recarea/?recid=11476">Siskiyou Wilderness,</a> which is a protected area by federal law. </p>
<p>What was noteworthy in the SCOTUS deliberations, though, was the dissenting opinion of Justice William Brennan, who defended land-based religions. He said,</p>
<p>“Native American faith is inextricably bound to the use of land. The site-specific nature of Indian religious practice derives from the Native American perception that land is itself a sacred, living being.” </p>
<p>Indeed, religion scholars such as Yale professor <a href="https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/tisa-wenger">Tisa Wenger</a> <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859353/we-have-a-religion/">point out</a> that “the most important religious freedom issues for Native Americans” center around protecting their sacred places. </p>
<p>At a time when the Trump administration has created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/08/opinions/trump-religious-liberty-opinion-mikva/index.html">new task force</a> to address discrimination against certain religious groups, the exclusion of Bears Ears and other places of religious significance from these discussions raises important questions about religious freedom in the United States and also the legacy of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, passed by the US Congress 40 years ago, Native Americans still struggle to protect public lands where they practice their religions.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Professor of HIstory, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/955992018-05-17T10:22:36Z2018-05-17T10:22:36ZSacred sites have a biodiversity advantage that could help world conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218986/original/file-20180515-122909-1gk5n6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/green-little-planet-old-catholic-churchyard-707413582?src=J7QXYf1njNG7vueK0j7tfQ-2-0">jokki/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the dawn of history, human societies have ascribed sacred status to certain places. Areas such as ancestral burial grounds, temples and churchyards have been given protection through taboo and religious belief. As many of these places have been carefully managed for many years an interesting side effect has occurred – the sites often retain more of their natural condition than surrounding areas used for farming or human habitation. As a result, they are often called “<a href="https://sacrednaturalsites.org/">sacred natural sites</a>” (SNS). </p>
<p>Today, as many other natural habitats have become degraded, researchers worldwide are increasingly interested in the role of SNS in biodiversity conservation. Most of the world’s belief systems, including Christianity, give places sacred status. In Mediterranean Europe, for instance, the grounds of churches – with their associated ancient trees – have become important SNS. </p>
<p>One of the best examples is in the mountainous region of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Epirus">Epirus</a> in north-western Greece. In the municipalities of Zagori and Konitsa almost every village has one or more sacred grove. These places have been protected through religious belief systems for hundreds of years. </p>
<p>The groves are either protective forests that lie uphill from the village, or groups of mature trees surrounding outlying churches, monuments or other works of religious art. Activities such as the cutting of trees or livestock grazing have been either prohibited or strictly regulated in these places (and disobeying these prohibitions <a href="https://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/service/Skript322.pdf">sometimes led to excommunication</a>).</p>
<h2>Greek investigation</h2>
<p>We have recently been studying these Greek SNS as part of our SAGE (SAcred Groves of Epirus) project. Our team wanted to find out, using a rigorous research approach, whether SNS are more biodiverse than other forest areas, and, if so, what lessons conservationists could learn from this. </p>
<p>To do this, our international and multidisciplinary group has recently completed the world’s first replicated systematic investigation into the claims that areas conserved as SNS are more biodiverse for different types of plant and animal.</p>
<p>For our <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WsCG1R%7Ee75FV">recently published study</a>, we selected eight SNS in Epirus that covered a wide range of environmental conditions. Each was closely matched with a nearby non-sacred “control” forest which had been managed conventionally – sometimes through natural regeneration. We then conducted a detailed inventory in each site, of eight different groups of organisms. These ranged from fungi and lichens, through herbaceous and woody plants to nematodes, insects, bats and passerine birds.</p>
<p>We found that SNS do indeed have a small but persistent biodiversity advantage. This is expressed in a number of ways, most clearly through the existence of more distinct communities of species among the sacred groves than in the control sites (this phenomenon is known as <a href="https://sciencing.com/calculate-beta-diversity-5649801.html">beta diversity</a>). </p>
<p>The group with the most notably higher biodiversity in the SNS than in control sites were the fungi. These often grow in dead wood or old trees, which usually get removed in conventionally managed forests. Of the species of passerine birds (a group that includes many songbirds) that are designated as having special conservation importance <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/legislation/habitatsdirective/index_en.htm">at a European level</a>, we found twice as many species present in the SNS as in the control sites.</p>
<p>Because these sacred sites are often quite small it is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-005-2574-6">often said</a> that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11258-006-9137-0">their conservation benefits</a> are marginal. But we found that the influence of size is relatively weak – even small SNS can play a significant role in biodiversity conservation.</p>
<h2>Conserving sacred sites</h2>
<p>But Epirus’s sacred sites are now in peril. The rules that linked belief and conservation that once protected the SNS have become difficult to enforce, due to changing population and land-use. The value of forests which protect from landslides and floods is no longer being recognised.</p>
<p>The value of SNS is not just on the land that is sacred itself, these places can act as a nucleus, around which biodiversity can expand. In Epirus, forests have regenerated around many of the sites we studied over the past 70 years – despite humans farming the land. It should be noted that this can increase risks such as fire, as dense young Mediterranean forest is very flammable.</p>
<p>Evidently the already well-conserved SNS are of great environmental importance across the world. So the next step is to link these sites into conventional conservation schemes. But it is vital that such strategies are closely aligned with the cultural status of SNS. Local communities are often highly motivated to maintain their sacred sites and associated belief systems but lack the resources to do so. A fully collaborative approach between conservation professionals and local communities could offer a solution that conserves both biodiversity and local cultural values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Healey receives funding from the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Education and Lifelong Learning of the National Strategic Framework (NRSF) (Code 379405) - Research Funding Program: THALIS. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M Halley has received funding from the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Education and Lifelong Learning of the National Strategic Framework (NRSF) (Code 379405) - Research Funding Program: THALIS. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kalliopi Stara has received funding from from the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Education and Lifelong Learning of the National Strategic Framework (NRSF) (Code 379405) - Research Funding Program: THALIS. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.</span></em></p>Many sacred sites such as temples, and churchyards are havens for biodiversity.John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences, Bangor UniversityJohn Halley, Professor of Ecology, University of IoanninaKalliopi Stara, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of IoanninaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/866062017-11-01T22:37:17Z2017-11-01T22:37:17ZCrop circles blur science, paranormal in X-Files culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192709/original/file-20171031-18693-14unifg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An intricate crop circle spans a diameter of more than 45 metres in a barley field close to Barbury Castle near Wroughton, England, about 130 kilometres west of London, in 2008. The circle is noteworthy for its complexity, representing the first 10 digits of the mathematical constant pi, or 3.141592654.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucy_Pringle_Aerial_Shot_of_Pi_Crop_Circle_-_panoramio.jpg">Lucy Pringle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Crop circles are some of the most beautiful, mysterious and controversial landscape phenomena in the contemporary world. They are found around the globe, appearing in countries with large areas of agricultural land. They are also central to a shift in culture with investigative approaches that mimic science and increasingly make the <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaalexander/13-episodes-of-the-x-files-to-watch-this-hallowe-1030w">paranormal mainstream</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike UFOs, ghosts and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sasquatch-court-bc-1.4375801">sasquatches</a>, crop circles are tangible — people can touch and walk into them. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/12/surge-crop-circles-caused-drone-users-police-say/">At least 30 appeared in England last summer</a>. In British Columbia, crop circle formations appeared in Vanderhoof, about 100 kilometres west of Prince George, in 1998 and 2001. </p>
<p>Crop circles and what people do with them represent one aspect of <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/geography/news-and-events/news-archives/news-2015/20151113-paul-kingsbury-sshrc-grant-awarded.html">my ongoing four-year research project</a>, which explores the recent growth of beliefs, practices and experiences related to the paranormal. My fieldwork studies investigative paranormal groups in the Vancouver area and paranormal conferences across North America and England.</p>
<p>Recent literature in the social sciences on <a href="http://www.paranormalculturesresearch.com">paranormal cultures</a> argues that despite the rise of a secular, post-religious society, paranormal discourses are becoming increasingly significant in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Co-habiting-with-Ghosts-Knowledge-Experience-Belief-and-the-Domestic/Lipman/p/book/9781409467724">people’s lives</a> in the West.</p>
<p>Because the <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/paranormal">paranormal</a> refers to “events or phenomena… that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding,” researchers have long acknowledged that the paranormal intersects with “normal” everyday life. </p>
<p>Recently, however, as a result of a paranormal influence in popular culture, the rise of new spiritualities and commodities associated with them — such as cauldrons, healing crystals and online psychic services — researchers have begun to question describing interest in the paranormal as subcultural or countercultural, rather than mainstream. </p>
<h2>Paranormal goes mainstream and scientific</h2>
<p>Investigative organizations and international conferences that mobilize paranormal feelings, knowledge and practices are central to the merger between the paranormal and the mainstream. </p>
<p>Drawing on the models and techniques that mimic conventional science, these conferences and organizations are open to the public and have led to the democratization of paranormal investigation and availability of paranormal experiences.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IRdrt8nPyy8?wmode=transparent&start=12" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The 1990s TV series, <em>The X-Files</em>, which followed FBI agents investigating strange phenomena, has regained popularity and returned to production amid rising interest in the paranormal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers — especially in the humanities — acknowledge the relevance of the paranormal. Yet enduring skepticism in the social sciences about the legitimacy of the claims about paranormal phenomena and experiences has resulted in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-07-26/scientific-crop-circle-research-held-back-by-ufo-links/7660712">a lack of critical studies</a> on how people are actually engaging with the paranormal.</p>
<p>Academic research has already acknowledged the importance of local paranormal groups and international conferences that engage paranormal phenomena — in particular ghosts, UFOs and <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cryptid">cryptids</a> such as sasquatch. Yet we know very little about the relationships between these groups and conferences, as well as why and how they shape people’s everyday lives.</p>
<p>My study helps explain how paranormal organizations and conferences are contributing to these sociocultural changes. </p>
<h2>Rationality conflicts with crop circles’ mystery</h2>
<p>Crop circle research or “cereology” exemplifies the tension between the ordinary and extraordinary.</p>
<p>No matter what one understands to be the cause of crop circles, whether they are all human-made or involve aquifers, ley lines, divine feminine energy, ancient sacred sites, ball lightning or even UFOs, crop circles bring to the fore a mysterious disconnection between language and the visible, as described in Jean-François Lyotard’s book <em><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8468070-discourse-figure">Discourse, Figure</a></em>. </p>
<p>The French philosopher argues there is an unstable relationship between linguistic meaning and units of signification, that is, the visible patterns of words, dreams, symbols and visual art. Because there is no inherent meaning in any given signifier (meaning always relies on another word and a wider context), and art and symbols are conceptually opaque by default, they necessarily defy easy rational understanding.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crop circle enthusiast from Dublin lies on the ground to connect with what he believes are sacred energies in a crop circle in Wiltshire, England, in July.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Paul Kingsbury)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Case in point: Events at the <a href="http://temporarytemples.co.uk/event/summer-lectures-crop-circle-conference-2017">2017 Summer Lectures Crop Circle Conference</a> in Devizes, England, illustrated the difficulty of researching crop circles.</p>
<p>One day during the conference, I went to visit a crop circle with fellow researchers only to find a sign on a gate to the property: “Crop circle closed.” The person representing an organization that liaises between farmers and crop-circle researchers was not present. Because we could not proceed without trespassing, we got back into the car.</p>
<p>Back at the conference, an argument erupted over the behaviour of some researchers who had ignored the “Crop circle closed” sign, climbed over the fence and walked to the crop circle. </p>
<p>For one researcher, this transgression was troubling because it exhibited the crass consumption of what he believed was a sacred phenomenon. Another researcher, who had ignored the sign, replied that he respected this opinion, but felt the crop circle was “calling out” to him and that it would be more disrespectful to ignore the pull of the sacred. </p>
<p>The researchers had differing views on whether a “Crop circle closed” sign, which demarcated a boundary, should be obeyed or whether it was an inappropriate obstacle to the “call” of the crop circle.</p>
<p>The tension between the appearances and meanings of crop circles also informed the tricky patience demanded in a <a href="http://web.mit.edu/4.299/Students/diop/relevant.html">sacred geometry</a> workshop. As participants drew lines with compasses and protractors, they struggled to accurately reproduce the complex patterns of crop circles, losing small pieces of pencil lead and struggling to keep their compasses from slipping on the paper. Conference organizer Karen Alexander said the exercise gave the participants a better appreciation and intimate understanding of crop circles. </p>
<h2>Interpreting paranormal cultures</h2>
<p>As a part of my work, I explore the tensions between the visual and language, focusing on the complexity of crop-circle landscapes where enthusiasts struggle to navigate toward, inside and away from crop circles. </p>
<p>Lyotard aligns these events with “figural space” — elusive elements that disrupt and exceed the capture of language. Crucial here is how crop circles — unlike ghosts, UFOs and sasquatches — are highly tangible signs. But what they mean and what they are remains a mystery. </p>
<p>Despite claims by “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/crop-circles-the-art-of-the-hoax-2524283/">circle-makers</a>” that they are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10217151/Crop-circles-demystified-how-the-patterns-are-created.html">human-made</a>, the sheer size and complexity of the circles belies a 100 per cent human-made explanation. </p>
<p>According to researchers at the conference, hoaxers, when questioned about how they were able to make 80 or so perfectly round circles without breaking or snapping cereal stalks, are unable to reproduce the patterns and ignore the researchers’ questions.</p>
<p>Furthermore, finding and getting to the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/26540-crop-circles.html">crop circles</a> — navigating narrow and winding English countryside roads and locating their exact whereabouts in large fields of wheat or barley — is no small feat.</p>
<p>Like all the other paranormal investigation cultures I have studied so far, crop circle research blurs the distinction between the everyday and the extraordinary. Beyond this, one cannot discount the importance of geography in the micro-spaces of fields and conference venues. The regional nature and extent to which crop circles are landscape phenomena incites many people’s desire to shape their encounters with the sublime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kingsbury receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Crop circles are global phenomena gaining attention as paranormal culture becomes mainstream, along with a hybrid approach that emulates scientific investigation.Paul Kingsbury, Professor, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779762017-05-19T14:26:02Z2017-05-19T14:26:02ZWhy augmented reality is triggering cultural conflict and religious controversy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170104/original/file-20170519-12221-1i4tox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">nednapa/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Russian man was recently given a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/11/pokemon-go-russian-youtuber-convicted-playing-church-ruslan-sokolovsky">three-and-a-half year suspended sentence</a> for inciting religious hatred. His crime? Playing the popular augmented reality (AR) game Pokémon Go on his smartphone in a church.</p>
<p>Sacred spaces and games have long had an uneasy relationship. In 2002, a setting resembling Amritsar’s Golden Temple appeared in the violent video game Hitman 2. <a href="http://www.sikhtimes.com/news_122402a.html">Controversy ensued</a>. But more than digitally recreating sacred places, we now have games that physically encroach on those spaces, incorporating them into location-based AR systems. Inside Gujarati temples where eggs are forbidden, were found some of Pokémon Go’s “virtual eggs”. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-37294286">Controversy ensued, again</a>.</p>
<p>AR is a simple idea with endlessly complicated implications – look around using special glasses or a smartphone camera, add software with location awareness, and the software can overlay information on a scene or even <a href="http://sndrv.nl/ARflashmob/">make things appear to be located “in” physical space</a>. AR turns physical sites into raw materials for the creation of new media, producing hybrids that are simultaneously everyday places and digital wonderlands.</p>
<figure>
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<p>As its popularity increases AR comes up against established norms and interests. Legal systems have to try to get to grips with new technology, there is cultural confusion about “virtual” items located in physical spaces and questions are raised as to who should have control when public or private or holy places meet digital culture.</p>
<p>Much is heard nowadays about the “cultural appropriation” of styles and images, but here we have software that bypasses that kind of appropriation by making use of physical sites as part of a game. Owing something to traditions of <a href="http://www.appropriationart.ca/">appropriation art</a>, AR borrows and recontextualises what it finds in its path.</p>
<p>This brings to the physical world something nearer the slippery aesthetics of video games: a meeting of creators’ intent and players’ freedom, where environments are hybrids of artwork and playground. The design of physical sites conveys intent already, from statues telling us about notable people to walls obliging us to keep out – but AR adds an extra, optional, transformational layer, and it makes changing the meaning of that layer merely a matter of switching between apps.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170106/original/file-20170519-12221-7xhe7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Augmented reality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sndrv/4635764320/">sndrv/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hacking culture</h2>
<p>Think that statues in public places are too seldom of notable women? <a href="http://creativity-online.com/work/yr-new-york-the-whole-story-project/51687">Augment your reality to change that</a>. Sickened by the pervasive commercialism of adverts on the subway? <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-we-want-an-augmented-reality-or-a-transformed-reality-31642">Use an AR app on your phone</a> to see artworks in their place. Feel that a mark of acceptance of homosexuality would look nice in the (notoriously intolerant) Westboro Baptist Church? <a href="http://kotaku.com/pokemon-go-fan-trolls-westboro-baptist-church-church-f-1783449276">It’s been done</a>.</p>
<p>This too evokes older practices in gaming culture, especially the parts of it that alter games with hacks and mods. Using AR to erect statues of women has a similar motive to hacking Donkey Kong to <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/03/donkey-kong-pauline-hack/">switch the hero with the damsel</a>. AR quietly enables people to edit their environments – on a personal, virtual level, without the intrusive downsides of <a href="https://www.psfk.com/2014/01/augmented-reality-graffiti.html">normal graffiti</a>. But nothing remains personal for long in the age of sharing apps and social media. Something that might initially be a personal virtual world can quickly go viral. </p>
<p>Previous debates concerning culture and virtual or augmented reality have involved <a href="https://theconversation.com/museums-are-using-virtual-reality-to-preserve-the-past-before-its-too-late-44600">what museums and other institutions might do</a> with the technology – and what it can do for preservation and public access to artefacts. Mass adoption of technology brings mass culture with it and grassroots cultural transformations emerge.</p>
<h2>Contested culture</h2>
<p>The legal disputes show that this is not always a simple, happy tale of technology empowering individuals and subcultures. Neither is controversy confined to arguments about what is done in sacred spaces. In Milwaukee another legal case <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/milwaukee-wisconsin-sued-requiring-permits-augmented-reality-games-996320">is being fought</a> after unauthorised AR was banned from public parks following damage by hordes of Pokémon hunters. The makers of an AR poker game called Texas Rope ’Em have objected to the restriction on free speech grounds. </p>
<figure>
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<p>Those in charge of Milwaukee’s public parks can point to the literal grass roots in their care. For Russian churches and Gujarati temples, something subtler seems to be at stake – not physical damage or pollution, but an unease with the implications when holy ground becomes enmeshed in the profane geography of an AR game, even when nothing is visible to those not choosing to play. Religion, after all, is a part of life particularly well attuned to the thought that there can be important realities which we cannot normally perceive.</p>
<p>Cultural controversies are often struggles for control and a sense of ownership – sometimes of physical sites or artefacts, but often of subtler trappings of identity. Technology has frequently brought with it the end of traditional ways of life. In augmented reality all three come together: the use of connected technologies to blend the physical and digital worlds in ways still weakly understood.</p>
<p>If you like this era of guerrilla statuary and ad-blocking on the subway, enjoy it while it lasts. AR has its commercial dimension, as the Pokémon Go craze has proved, and has been touted for some time as virgin territory for the advertising industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Seddon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Who owns culture in the real-virtual world of augmented reality?Robert Seddon, Honorary Fellow (Philosophy), Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/740272017-04-27T01:53:00Z2017-04-27T01:53:00ZThe changing nature of sacred spaces<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166669/original/file-20170425-25594-mx284z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Multi-faith Chapel at Hebrew Senior Life / Newbridge On The Charles, Dedham, Massachusetts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.armorfoto.com">Randall Armor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Congregational membership in the United States is <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/684202">slowly declining</a>. Data from the General Social Survey show that 17 percent of Americans attended a religious gathering weekly in the 1990s. By 2010, this number had dropped to 11 percent. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-changing-nature-of-americas-irreligious-explained-71066">changes</a> spark new questions about how people’s personal religious and spiritual beliefs are changing. They also raise questions about where, if at all, people experience the sacred. </p>
<p>With architectural historian <a href="http://www.wellesley.edu/art/faculty/friedman#cHwqCGCYOyM1KguP.97">Alice Friedman</a> and photographer <a href="http://armorfoto.com/">Randall Armor</a>, I located and documented more than 50 hidden sacred spaces in the greater Boston area alone.</p>
<p>Tucked around the edges in Boston – in hospital chapels, meditation rooms in universities, and prayer rooms in airports, nursing homes and a range of other institutions – these spaces are open to the public.</p>
<h2>Initial glimpses</h2>
<p>While <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo13963369.html">conducting research</a> for a book about religion and spirituality in health care, I visited many hospital chapels, meditation and prayer rooms. I began a conversation with Alice and architect Karla Johnson, who built an <a href="http://multifaithspaces.com/documents/TuftsU_InterfaithCenterCaseStudy.pdf">interfaith space</a> at Tufts, several years ago. We hoped to photograph and share these spaces with a broader audience as a next step in our conversation. Karla became ill and died in 2016, and Alice and I decided to continue these efforts in her memory.</p>
<p>As a first step, photographer Randy Armor and I started driving around the city last summer photographing as many chapels, meditation and prayer rooms as we could find in institutions focused on things other than religion and spirituality. In the past nine months we have located close to 80 such spaces and photographed just over 50. </p>
<p>Even as congregations decline, we learned, chapels, meditation and prayer rooms remain, and people are eager to talk with us about them. </p>
<h2>Evolving over time</h2>
<p>We found these spaces in hospitals, nursing homes, colleges and universities, the port, the airport, public parks, malls, state prisons, cemeteries and even a local museum. Some are standalone, while others are a part of larger buildings. Some were designed by well-known architects, while others were created informally by people desiring a small retreat. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166674/original/file-20170425-25594-1rxup81.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chapel at New England Seafarers Mission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.armorfoto.com">Randall Armor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-chapel-cambridge/">chapel at MIT</a>, for example, was designed in 1955 by prominent architect Eero Saarinen and paired with his famous Kresge Auditorium nearby, intended to meet the religious and spiritual needs of everyone on the MIT campus. A small prayer space at the <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/new-england-seafarers-mission/">New England Seafarers Mission</a> in the port, in contrast, has been moved and changed several times. Today it consists of a cushion for someone in a kneeling position, behind a movable screen under a tapestry of the Last Supper.</p>
<p>While some of the spaces we found look much as they did when constructed, others have evolved over time to accommodate people from a range of religious traditions. At <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/brandeis-university/">Brandeis University</a>, for example, the original chapels were built in the early 1950s for Protestants, Catholics and Jews. Today there are spaces for Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other students in various areas across campus. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166675/original/file-20170425-12640-1v8mnu0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chapel at Northeastern University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.armorfoto.com">Randall Armor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/space-to-sweat-body-politic/">Northeastern University</a>, a sacred space, a reflection room and an area for ablution, private prayer and meditation were literally built on the ashes of the university’s tradition Bacon Memorial Chapel, which burned in the 1990s. Designed by architects Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani and opened in 1998, the area was designed to be flexible and accessible to multiple religious practitioners.</p>
<h2>Negotiating religious differences</h2>
<p>Many of the spaces we located are utilized by diverse people and groups. Designers and users make a range of decisions to try to accommodate everyone. Flexibility is evident in many health care organizations where religious symbols have increasingly been removed from traditional chapels and furniture put on wheels to be as versatile as possible. </p>
<p>At <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/massachusetts-general-hospital/">Massachusetts General Hospital</a>, the original chapel, which opened in April 25, 1941, was created through the work of Rev. William Lawrence, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. In the late 1930s, he sent more than 1,500 letters to friends of the hospital asking for support to build it. A cross in the early chapel was removed and symbols and objects added for practice in a broader range of religious traditions.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/massachusetts-general-hospital/">Muslim prayer room was opened</a> around the corner from the chapel in 1999 and a mihrab, or special niche that indicates the direction of Mecca, was added in 2005. Verses from the Koran in English and Arabic hang in the Muslim prayer room, which is used by visitors throughout the day. Friday prayers are held in a larger conference room nearby.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166672/original/file-20170425-27254-xrxrpx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chapel at Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Concord.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.armorfoto.com">Randall Armor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/massachusetts-correctional-institution-chapels-and-mosque-concord/">Prison chapels</a> in greater Boston have also expanded to include spaces for people from multiple religious traditions. Constructed in the 1970s, a sunken building housing the chapels sits at the center of Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Concord. A Catholic chapel, Protestant chapel and Muslim prayer room inside are staffed by full and part-time chaplains from Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Everyday uses</h2>
<p>While formal religious services continue to take place in a few of these settings – especially prison chapels – the majority are mostly often used as places of <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/beth-israel-deaconess-medical-center-chapels-boston/">quiet respite</a>. As we traveled around the city, we saw nurses stop into hospital chapels as their shifts change and family members use them as quiet places to cry. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166696/original/file-20170425-13411-4i6qum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chapel at Logan International Airport, Boston.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.armorfoto.com">Randall Armor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We saw <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/our-lady-of-the-airways-logan-airport-boston/">travelers at Logan Airport</a> sit in darkened pews, with eyes closed and a small suitcase nearby, before they hurried off to find their gates. And we saw many people come through the chapel in the <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/st-francis-chapel-at-the-prudential-center/">Prudential Center Mall</a> in the midst of their working days.</p>
<p>Some of these spaces are multi-faith, while others are Catholic. Some are mostly empty, while others – especially those in prisons – seem to often be full. Some, like <a href="http://www.hiddensacredspaces.org/#/cushing-chapel-framingham/">Cushing Memorial Chapel in Framingham</a>, tell stories about institutions shifting from care for veterans to the elderly to everyone – the chapel is now in a park, the rest of the institution having been demolished.</p>
<p>As a group, all of these spaces suggest that what makes spaces sacred in Boston and nationally is shifting from religious symbols alone to broader symbols of nature, light and air. Such spaces are used quietly by many people across the United States even as congregations decline. </p>
<p>We encourage people to notice them and the pause they encourage, often hidden from plain sight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Cadge receives funding from Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project is also made possible through grants provided by Brandeis University and Wellesley College, and through the generous support of The Theodore and Jane Norman Fund For Faculty Research and Creative Projects.</span></em></p>Even as congregations decline, chapels, meditation and prayer rooms are evolving as spaces of multi-faith worship and quiet reflection.Wendy Cadge, Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/700162016-12-07T02:10:41Z2016-12-07T02:10:41ZHow Standing Rock became a site of pilgrimage<p>The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for investigating, developing and maintaining water and related environmental resources, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/us/federal-officials-to-explore-different-route-for-dakota-pipeline.html?_r=0">recently announced</a> that they would not allow the Dakota Access pipeline to be constructed under the Missouri River and through <a href="https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=42">Lakota territory</a>. </p>
<p>This decision essentially ended the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest against the pipeline, which they claimed would both desecrate their sacred sites and cause potential environmental harm. </p>
<p>The Standing Rock Sioux tribe was able to achieve this victory in part because of the assistance of thousands of “water protectors.” In his letter of thanks, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman David Archambault Jr. <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/12/05/standing-rock-could-not-come-far-alone">wrote</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Standing Rock could not have come this far alone. Hundreds of tribes came together in a display of tribal unity not seen in hundreds of years. And many thousands of indigenous people from around the world have prayed with us and made us stronger.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thousands of people, both those within Native American communities and their non-Native allies, felt called to go to Standing Rock. But what drew that many people to Standing Rock? </p>
<p>As a Native American scholar of environmental history and religion, I believe that for most individuals who gathered at the site, it was a modern-day pilgrimage.</p>
<p>Here’s why.</p>
<h2>Idea of pilgrimage</h2>
<p>First, what is a pilgrimage? Anthropologists <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0074.xml">Victor Turner</a> and <a href="https://anthropology.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/elt9w">Edith Turner</a> in their classic study <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/image-and-pilgrimage-in-christian-culture/9780231157919">“Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture”</a> addressed that question when they researched the personal motivations of those who traveled long distances on pilgrimage. </p>
<p>Their answer was twofold. The Turners contended that individuals on a spiritual quest seek both an “out of this ordinary world” experience and a sense of community, “unity” or “oneness” with those on a similar quest. Individuals on a pilgrimage usually have these experiences both while traveling to certain places of transcendence and while at those sacred places. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148932/original/image-20161206-15197-1sf50ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does pilgrimage mean?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/40969298@N05/28861524604/in/photolist-LL4rzs-KYsca7-Lu7r7w-LL4ph1-KYDTXg-LSAxaG-LVAn4F-Lu4yG7-LKZUrS-LVAfei-LVAcjk-KYAKvc-LSynhj-KYABkK-KYAy18-KYp2SW-LVzX7n-LSyc3G-KYoRKb-KYoQbQ-LVzPVi-LNvACx-LNvzhr-LKZnVG-LNvwnP-LSxZzb-KYoHjU-LSxYcm-LVzEuz-LNvq84-LSxTBj-KYox31-LKZ6X9-Lu3GeU-LVzgW8-LSxDKw-KYzE28-KYoaXW-LtYLbu-LNqX1X-LNqUt2-LNqRfD-LVuYoR-LVuVLX-LKUuC9-KYiGeh-LKUqab-KYvpL2-LSsESS-LrrLn7">Joe Brusky</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/ac/people/faculty/pdeloria.html">Lakota scholar Philip Deloria</a>, has also described how the transformative experience of Native American sacred places provides meaning and personal growth for individuals who journey to be in their presence. In the book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_khgtBPZZyYC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=American+Indian+Places:+A+Historical+Guidebook+edited+by+Frances+Kennedy&source=bl&ots=3WlSgx0WaL&sig=iPXgS4AFnkhMNN0CZO_8ZQFz1FQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjksLHw6d_QAhUCMGMKHf4_D6YQ6AEIYzAK#v=onepage&q=American%20Indian%20Places%3A%20A%20Historical%20Guidebook%20edited%20by%20Frances%20Kennedy&f=false">“American Indian Places</a>,” Deloria discusses how people are likely to return to these important places again and again. </p>
<p>Going to Standing Rock evolved into a pilgrimage for many Native Americans: they left their “ordinary” lives behind to journey to a Lakota sacred place, and participate in a larger collective action.</p>
<p>My cousin Renee LaPier and her daughter Modesta LaPier, for example, journeyed 2,600 miles to and from Standing Rock. As Ojibwe women, with family on the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota, they felt inspired to go to Standing Rock after meeting hundreds of like-minded individuals at a “water protectors” gathering they organized in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. </p>
<p>Going to Standing Rock forced them and others to step out of their “ordinary” modern lives and travel to a remote rural area of the U.S. with few amenities including no cellphone coverage. And once at the site, they encountered a transformative experience. Reflecting on her experience, <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2016/09/crowd_protests_dakota_access_p.html">Renee said</a>, “It’s personal. It’s deeply deeply personal. It’s important for all of us to stand up together.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148933/original/image-20161206-13648-1oo1gd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Going on a pilgrimage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/40969298@N05/29406026821/in/photolist-LL4rzs-KYsca7-Lu7r7w-LL4ph1-KYDTXg-LSAxaG-LVAn4F-Lu4yG7-LKZUrS-LVAfei-LVAcjk-KYAKvc-LSynhj-KYABkK-KYAy18-KYp2SW-LVzX7n-LSyc3G-KYoRKb-KYoQbQ-LVzPVi-LNvACx-LNvzhr-LKZnVG-LNvwnP-LSxZzb-KYoHjU-LSxYcm-LVzEuz-LNvq84-LSxTBj-KYox31-LKZ6X9-Lu3GeU-LVzgW8-LSxDKw-KYzE28-KYoaXW-LtYLbu-LNqX1X-LNqUt2-LNqRfD-LVuYoR-LVuVLX-LKUuC9-KYiGeh-LKUqab-KYvpL2-LSsESS-LrrLn7">Joe Brusky</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modern-day pilgrimage</h2>
<p>It is not just Native Americans who have gone to Standing Rock. On Dec. 5 an estimated 2,000 U.S. veterans, both Native American and their non-Native allies, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/veterans-north-dakota-standing-rock.html?_r=0">made their pilgrimage</a> to Standing Rock in a freezing blizzard. They came from across the U.S. and other parts of the world; they represented American veterans from many conflicts and wars, including older Korean and Vietnam vets and younger Iraqi vets. They said they came to Standing Rock for “peace and prayer.” </p>
<p>What does this mean?</p>
<p>Religious scholar <a href="https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/chsbs/PHLREL/Religion/Faculty/Pages/default.aspx">Laurel Zwissler</a> has studied why and how young people are “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739127940/Feminist-Spirituality-The-Next-Generation">refocusing their personal religious practices</a>” to include “religious practice with public action.” She explains how they are blending their individual religious ideas and political activism into a new form of religious expression.</p>
<p>Zwissler’s research reveals participating in protests, even those across a great distance, becomes a new place of individual and collective spiritual practice.</p>
<p>Many Native Americans and non-Native allies viewed going to Standing Rock as a pilgrimage. I have read <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ShaileneWoodley/">hundreds</a> of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarkRuffalo/">social media posts</a> of people who were drawn to go there as a spiritual quest, reflecting on how the experience changed their sense of identity, gave meaning to their lives, provided a sense of community and transformed them forever. </p>
<p>Even Chairman David Archambault Jr., in an address to the veterans, said their pilgrimage had meaning because “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/veterans-north-dakota-standing-rock.html">What you’re doing is sacred.</a>” </p>
<p>I believe a modern kind of pilgrimage for Native Americans is emerging in which people travel to sites of collective action as a form of religious practice. It is true that some come for personal goals of spiritual awakening and some to journey to a sacred place. And, there are others who undertake a spiritual journey to find community, and purpose. </p>
<p>In the end, utilizing prayer and ceremony, they would have all experienced a pilgrimage – returning to their home different from when they left.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier is affiliated with Saokio Heritage. </span></em></p>Thousands of people, both those within Native American communities and their non-Native allies, felt called to go to Standing Rock. What was the motivation?Rosalyn R. LaPier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Religion, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.