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| At the New Zealand Film Archive. Front row: Jeanne Rubin; Waana Morrell Davis, chairman, Toi Maori Aotearoa; Ann Phillips, trustee, New Zealand Film Archive; Huia Kopua, manager of Maori programmes, New Zealand Film Archive. Back row: Wiremu Grace, writer and filmmaker; Garry Nicholas, General Manager, Toi Maori Aotearoa; and Merv Tano. |
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| Merv Tano; veteran filmmaker Don Selwyn; and Trevor Moeke of the Wananga O Aotearoa at Selwyn's He Taonga Films office in Auckland. |
The Institute initiated its festival last year by showcasing the highly acclaimed Whale Rider. The film, had been lauded on the film festival circuit, taking major audience awards in Rotterdam, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and the Sundance film festival. The presence at, and generous support of the Institute's festival by Witi Ihimaera, author of the 1987 novel on which Whale Rider is based did much to ensure a successful launch. Mr. Ihimaera is credited with being the first writer of Maori fiction.
Maori are one of the most vigorous and assertive indigenous cultures in the English-speaking world, but thus far their impact on film internationally has been relatively small. Once Were Warriors and its neglected 1999 follow-up What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? had somewhat limited international distribution, but Utu, a film about the Maori land wars of the 1860s and Barry Barclay's Ngati and Te Rua have been invisible outside of film festivals, college campuses, and speciality cinema houses.
Bridging the cultural divide may be one way to increase exposure of Maori films. One of the impediments to selling Ihimaera's work internationally has been his insistence on using Maori words in preference to English equivalents, and his refusal to publish glossaries. The same uncompromising attitude has hampered the release of The Maori Merchant of Venice, a 2001 production by veteran Maori film-maker Don Selwyn. The film attracted worldwide media attention while it was still in post-production, but has yet to be shown outside a few private screenings. Selwyn acknowledges that the decision to use a 1945 Maori translation of Shakespeare's play, rather than the original English, has significantly limited its appeal. "Primarily we're interested in resurrecting the language, which has historically struggled to exist," he says. "It's important to connect to people, but in some cases you lose the essence of the culture if you try to translate too much." Merv Tano, president of the Institute isn't worried about the reception these films will receive in Denver. "Denver is one of the most culturally diverse cities around and chockablock with sophisticated filmgoers. We think these are great films with stories that can be appreciated at several levels. Maori, like Hawaiians and many other native peoples, have a strong oral tradition. "The power and sensuousness of their oratory, poetry, chants, and, I think, their films are cloaked in allusion and metaphor and constructed with layer upon layer of meaning," Tano said.
Ultimately, says Selwyn, the problem comes down to a question of money. Once Were Warriors, The Piano and Whale Rider were all largely financed offshore. "What we need is producers and investors who are prepared to put up the money for these films," he says. "They're great universal stories that have resonance across the world." Among the films to be screened at the 2005 Denver Indigenous Film and Arts Festival will be Utu and The Maori Merchant of Venice. Several short films and documentaries by Maori, Hawaiian, and American Indian filmmakers are also included.
Denver, March 15-16, 2005. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can be an important part of federal agency consultation with Indian tribes. However, effective tribal participation in the NEPA process requires an awareness of the workings and procedural requirements of NEPA, technical expertise, knowledge of the broad range of tribal environmental, social, cultural, health and safety interests that may be affected by federal programs and activities and a strategy that links NEPA responses to other legal and statutory requirements such as the federal-Indian trust doctrine, treaty rights, AIRFA, NAGPRA, etc. On March 15-16, the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management sponsored a workshop on NEPA that provided practical instruction and assistance to inform tribal decision-makers on: the requirements and latest developments in NEPA compliance and litigation; the role of tribal, federal and state regulators in the NEPA process; and strategies to identify and protect tribal interests that may be affected by proposed federal actions.
Denver, March 17-18, 2005. Tribal lands and resources are valued not only for rights-of-way or leases but also for risk management, natural resource damage assessments, and other environmental cost-benefit studies. On March 17-18, 2005 the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management sponsored a workshop on valuation of tribal lands and resources to demonstrate why valuation disparities in Indian country exist and how to properly value rights-of-ways in Indian country. The workshop reviewed traditional valuation techniques and demonstrated why they are not appropriate for valuating tribal lands and resources. The opportunity cost doctrine and other non-traditional valuation techniques were explained and demonstrated via case studies and exercises in identifying tribal interests in rights-of-way and lease valuations.
Intellectual Property, Biopiracy. In a landmark decision on March 8, 2005, the European Patent Office in Munich upheld a decision to revoke in its entirety a patent on a fungicidal product derived from seeds of the Neem, a tree indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. The historic action resulted from a legal challenge mounted ten years ago by three Opponents: the renowned Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, Magda Aelvoet, then MEP and President of the Greens in the European Parliament, and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). Their joint Legal Opposition claimed that the fungicidal properties of the Neem tree had been public knowledge in India for many centuries and that this patent exemplified how international law was being misused to transfer biological wealth from the South into the hands of a few corporations, scientists, and countries of the North. Today the EPO's Technical Board of Appeals dismissed an Appeal by the would-be proprietors -- the United States of America and the company Thermo Trilogy -- and maintained the decision of its Opposition Division five years ago to revoke the Neem patent in its entirety, thus bringing to a close this ten-year battle in the world's first legal challenge to a biopiracy patent.
Environmental Protection, Valuing Ecosystem Services. Nutrient recycling, habitat for plants and animals, flood control, and water supply are among the many beneficial services provided by aquatic ecosystems. In making decisions about human activities, such as draining a wetland for a housing development, it is essential to consider both the value of the development and the value of the ecosystem services that could be lost. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, their value is often overlooked in environmental decision-making. Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making a report by the Committee on Assessing and Valuing the the Services of Aquatic and Related Terrestrial Ecosystems of the National Research Council identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem services even intangible ones and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts. To order the report see http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11139.html.
12th National Tribal Environmental Council Conference, "So be it in our minds: Gathering Strength for Environmental Protection"
May 1-5, 2005
Radisson Inn and Conference Center
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Information and registration at http://www.ntec.org/Events/NTEC%20Conference/ntec_conference.htm.
NAID/ADC 2005 Annual Conference
This will be the first national conference dealing with the impacts of the new Base Realignment and Closure list and other important topics for defense communities like privatization, outsourcing, and community-installation partnerships.
June 4-7, 2005
Colorado Convention Center
Denver, Colorado
Register at http://www.defensecommunities.org/AnnualConference/index.html.
Council of Energy Resource Tribes Indian Energy Solutions 2005
June 21-22, 2005
Morongo Casino~Resort~Spa
Cabazon, California
Information and registration at http://www.certredearth.com/content.php?page=events&title=Events.
StormCon, The North American Surface Water Quality Conference & Exposition
This is the place to be to learn about technical, managerial, and technological solutions to stormwater management.
July 18-21, 2005
JW Marriott Grande Lakes
Orlando, Florida
See the conference program at www.StormCon.com.
Brownfields 2005 Conference
November 2-4, 2005
Colorado Convention Center
Denver, Colorado
Information and registration at http://www.brownfields2005.org/en/index.aspx