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Henry Lickers, Environmental Science Officer for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, in St. Lawrence Islands National Park near Brockville, Ontario. Photo credit: Ashley Burke

Last week, Tapestry's exploration of the idea of sacred ground took us to Ground Zero in New York City, where the dizzying pace of construction is raising questions about how to commemorate the site and how close is too close for an Islamic community center.  

This week, our search takes us elsewhere.  Writer Phil Cousineau tells Mary Hynes what makes a place sacred.

Akbar Ahmed ponders Mecca; what it is about the place, that brings many Muslims to "the core of (their) faith".  Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C.  

We hear from Jane Korman, who traveled to Auschwitz in 2009 with her three children and her 89-year-old father who is a holocaust survivor.  Jane made a video of herself, her father and her children, dancing to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" in front of the ovens and cattle cars of Auschwitz and the gates of Terezin prison.  

When the video was posted on Youtube, it stirred much debate.  In Jane's words, "The light-bulb went off in my mind.  We could dance at Auschwitz, the family together, the three generations, we could celebrate life, rejoice freedom."  

Henry Lickers, Environmental Science Officer for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, tells Mary that all ground is sacred ground.  Henry joins us from the St. Lawrence Islands National Park, near Brockville, Ontario.