Amazonian Sacred Songs: Fundraiser for Projeto Água

YOKE teams up with Santa Estrela (aka Benjamin Mudge) for his last night in Melbourne to bring you this concert presenting sacred songs from indigenous and contemporary cultures of the Amazon, raising funds for the Huni Kuin people.
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PROJETO ÁGUA is a Brazilian charity bringing clean water to the Huni Kuin tribe in the River Jordão and River Taruacá, which is in the Brazilian Amazon – near the Peruvian border. The Huni Kuin people (also known as the Kaxinawá) live in perfect harmony with nature, but now are suffering the effects of global warming because it does not rain as much in the Amazon rainforests any more. They don’t have access to reliably clean drinking water, consequently Huni Kuin children have been dying from bacterial illnesses and dehydration. PROJETO ÁGUA is building clean water technologies in each of the Huni Kuin villages. By doing this, they not only save lives but also empower the Huni Kuin women: instead of spending many hours everyday walking long distances and carrying water from the river to wash clothes and dishes, the Huni Kuin women will be able to dedicate more precious time sharing their ancestral knowledge with the children, so that their culture can flourish.

Santa Estrela, aka Benjamin Mudge, is a musician and soundhealer who has been studying the sacred songs of Amazonian cultures for 8 years, and who recently travelled to the furthest village up the River Jordão. He was so moved by the passionately positive spirituality of the Huni Kuin people that he felt moved to support Projeto Água.

The audience will each get smudged with Palo Santo (Amazonian incense), then be served ceremonial Cacao by the Shamanic Energy Training team. Mudge will be giving everyone a didgeridoo healing before they sit in a meditation and prayer. Mudge will lead a guided soundhealing meditation drawing on the spiritual traditions of the Amazon: singing a selection of sacred songs from both ancient indigenous and contemporary spiritual cultures, in Portuguese, Huni Kuin, Yawanawa, Shipibo, Spanish, Hebrew and English languages. Some of these songs are have never been sung in public in Melbourne before. The evening will conclude with an ecstatic dance celebration with tunes by DJ Pumpernickle from Byron Bay facilitated by Sanna Wittner from YOKE.

YOKE is a Melbourne and festival based dance community fusing dance, movement with live and electronic beats. The word YOKE is a Sanskrit term meaning ‘coming together’, forming union. These workshops are about facilitating authentic connections to oneself and one other in a space completely free from judgments. We invite you to take the time to let go of the mind and drop into the body through ecstatic dance and movement. YOKE is a collaborative consciousness calling all individuals seeking to express intuitively and energize the soul.

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Featuring:

Heart opening Cacao Ceremony with Sharon Bolt and the Shamanic Energy Training Team
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Live 3 Dimensional Installation and Visual Projections by Hisham Tawfiqi
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Individual Didgeridoo Sound Healing, Sacred Prayers and a concert of Amazonian Sacred Songs sung by Santa Estrela (aka Benjamin Mudge )
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YOKE Ecstatic Dance with Pumpernickle & YOKE
https://soundcloud.com/pumpernickle

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This is a DONATION event, with all proceeds going to the Water Txai – Projeto Água charity: your donations get clean water to the Huni Kuin people in the Brazilian Amazon:
http://watertxai.org/?lang=en

Come along and join us for a night of spiritual connection, celebration of nature and culture through music and movement 🙂