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The Earth is Our Mother (Part I)
| Released: | 1988 |
| Ages: |
College Adult |
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Anthropologist and psychologist Peter Elsass studied two Indian tribes in Colombia and Venezuela over a 16-year period. In his film, The Earth is Our Mother (Part I), we see their different ways of dealing with encroaching white civilization. The Motilon Indians in the lowland of Venezuela gave up their traditional ways and became dependent on the Catholic missionaries who converted them. They became spiritually and economically impoverished. The Arhuaco Indians, in the mountains of northern Colombia, threw out the missionaries and maintained their cultural integrity. They have an abiding spiritual attachment to their land.
Films in this series:
• The Earth is Our Mother, The Journey Back (Part II)
"Offers great insight into the Indian's perceptions of white men's values." - EFLA Evaluations
Native American Exposition Award, Santa Fe, 1996
