Since December 2012, when Unity Earth hosted its first festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the interfaith peace movement has grown across the globe, bringing together artists, musicians, visionaries and travelers. From Crestone, Colorado to Ethiopia, Australia and Jerusalem, this global network of peace seekers sees beyond cultural differences toward a common care for people and the planet.
In September of 2020, a time of deep uncertainty, The Center for Human Flourishing brought Unity Earth’s Caravan of Unity to Carbondale, recording conversations and artistic performances at the Third Street Center for international broadcast. You can view the archive here.
This September, the movement will gather in Japan — Land of the Rising Sun — visiting Tokyo, Mount Fuji and concluding in Hiroshima, “a poignant testament to resilience, reconciliation and the enduring pursuit of peace,” the website states.
Among the pilgrims converging to pray for planetary peace, local musicians Mateo Sandate and Shayla Paradeis were invited to attend as performing artists. The event will coincide with Peace Week, Sept. 14-22, established by the United Nations in 1981. Sandate and Paradeis will play at various events and ceremonies throughout the week.
The couple is already familiar with Japan, having traveled there last summer. Moreover, Sandate’s grandmother is from Fukuoka, a city on Kyushu island. Fukuoka is a burgeoning city that was once the capital of Japan. According to Sandate, it was nearly bombed instead of Hiroshima, but “it was a very cloudy day,” he was told. “It was because of the clouds and the overcast that Fukuoka, which was the destination before for the atomic bomb, was passed by.”
Visiting the island, he noted abundant spiritual devotion and wondered if all the monks’ prayers and shrines weren’t in part what brought the clouds that day as protective cover. “You can’t not walk down the streets during spiritual practice and not be changed,” he said.
Top of mind during the summit will be the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a moment that forever changed history. The 79th anniversary was earlier in August. Upon visiting Hiroshima last year, Paradeis perceived a feeling like “reverse rain” or “extreme evaporation” she attributed to so many souls departing in the same instance. From the tragedy, she attests, there is opportunity for the birth of greater beauty. It’s a “fight no more forever place,” she said, referencing a lyric from her new song, “Sacred Earth.”
On Aug. 6, 1945, “Little Boy” fell on Hiroshima, killing between 90,000 and 166,000 people. Another 60,000 to 80,000 people perished from “Fat Man” falling on Nagasaki three days later. Many died immediately. The death toll continued to climb in the following months and years from radiation exposure.
“Knowing that the Earth needs to be sung to and needs to see us come together as one, I’ve felt a common theme coming up often in my recent days, with a focus on healing,” Paradeis reflected. “As individuals, through our ancestry, the waterways, air and forests … there is a sort of bubbling up of things that don’t want to be looked at. Yet it’s in looking at them that we are able to really start the process.”
Mateo anticipates it will be like a “sultry jazz chord” to find harmony among so many diverse cultures. “There’s room for all of it and we can’t really tell the story without all of it,” Paradeis added. She leans into the importance of the storyteller and song sharer in changing collective consciousness. “When we sing together, it changes the universe,” she said.
In order to travel, the couple is raising $8,000 with a GoFundMe page. “It’s an honor to represent this community, Colorado and our country,” Mateo said. “It means more and more each day and we’re just asking for support to help us get there.” Already, the Rebekah’s Lodge stepped in with $5,000 to cover the cost of plane tickets. Additional donations will go toward event registration, meals, gifts for Japanese communities and a guitar flight case. Find the GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/f/Singing-Our-Way-to-Unity
You can also enjoy Sandate and Paradeis’ music live at a fundraiser concert at the Third Street Center on Aug. 29 at 7pm. They will share original songs as well as timeless folk classics “all in support of where humanity is going,” said Paradeis.
Find all Unity Earth offerings, including a video message from the Kogi of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia to the “civilized” world, at: unity.earth