Projects that create community and inspire environmental & social justice through Music, Art and Play
On the horizon
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Music Series: Voice of the Earth
Voice of the Earth is a series of musical releases, in collaboration with producers and musicians who deeply feel, and express for the planet. This project is led by singer and songwriter, Marly Benedicto. Each track is intended to take the listener on a journey into the long forgotten mythology of our creation story- from the perspective of planet Earth. The earth is an equal sentient being and deserves to be heard, understood and considered as so.
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Documentary: The Train and the Peninsula
When the construction of Mexico’s controversial Megaproject known as the ‘Mayan Train’ begins to snake its way through the heart of the Mayan territory, we are taken on a journey across the Yucatan Peninsula into the crevasses of its complex history and current inhabitants. Hear the voices of both sides, the money moguls and the brave modern Maya who are standing up and challenging this model of progress, asserting its threat to human sovereignty, not only in the region, but the world.
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Harmonize™: Women’s Education & Leadership
Educating women has been shown as a top way to reduce and prevent climate change. We empower women by giving them the tools to clarify their voice and bring their mind, body and Spirit into harmony. With practical communication formulas and somatic wellness practices, this program addresses and heals PTSD as well as sexual trauma. This project is also designed to study and document the effectiveness of singing as vibrational medicine. Learn more, click here.
Past Projects and Impact
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London Climate Change Forum
Gaia Temple joined Humans I Trust and the Dollar Donation Club this October to host the official NFTree auction and after party for the CC Forum. The money raised plants over 64k food forest trees in Tanzania, and also provides a 4 year training to locals. This initiative is a 7 generation approach to maintain and expand upon the gardens- mitigating both carbon emissions and food poverty.
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Bali Elemental Mysteries
Performed in July at the Dragon Tea Temple of Ubud, Elemental Mysteries is an interactive musical and storytelling experience designed to enliven the senses and awaken the mythos of creation within you. Artists evoke each element in reverence to the remembrance of Gaia as a sentient being. The audience is introduced to the voice of the earth. This interactive performance is a total sensory experience.
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Austin Harmonize for Humanity
Gaia Temple produced a Harmonize Humanity, a day long event, live from the capitol of Austin Texas on 2.22.22. The spirit was an unforgettable gathering of hope, love and inclusion. The festival launched off with an Unleash! dance party on the front lawn, followed by an EFT session of love and liberty on the steps of the capitol, then string quartet and opera in the rotunda followed by live music and speakers. This event was streamed live as an international festival and included speakers and artists from around the world.
“True imagination is not fanciful daydreaming; it is fire from heaven.”
~ Ernest Holmes
Voice of the Ocean
Meeting of the Sisters was recorded in 2022 Austin, Texas. The song was produced by Claraty (Zaharosky) and sung by Marly Benedicto as an embodiment of the element and Spirit of water. “This song was inspired from my time living on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was there that I was immersed in the mermaid ponds, jungle rains, and swam with wild dolphin in the open ocean. Water awakened a deeper life force and calling within me, and Clara understood this. As a world walker herself, as well as an intuitive musical artist, she embraced the ethereal and symbolic song I dreamt of recording. And so we did…” read more and to listen on Spotify, click here.
Additional tracks to be released in 2024 partner with Balinese water priestess and aims to raise awareness and support for Bali NGOs who clean and restore waterways. This will include a prayer for the water, a spoken word and video entitled “Humans of the Earth” and one additional earth advocate song- all aspects a collaborative and community building project. Additionally, Marly Benedicto is scheduled to release a track channeling the voice of lava, produced with Pablo Vicencio. He blends his experience as a Ayahuascaro with his musical talent as a Grammy Award winning music producer and percussionist with Marly’s vision and channeled vocals to take the listener into the steady and heated energy and voice that is lava.
This multi-year project is designed to connect musicians from around the world who take a stand for environmentalism, social justice and liberation through the arts. Each track aims to engage local communities to sing, pray and take action for the planet, recalling that the earth has a voice and is alive.
The Train and the Peninsula
We are collaborating with any and all who wish to shift this discussion from political discourse into the nuanced realities of what is at stake, and what is possible with the integration of untaught history and respect for cultural heritages. A catalyst to empower local ‘progress’ from the inside out, instead of foreign investment inwards. This film is a historical document now, for almost half of the images shot between 2020-2023, no longer exist due to the trains construction. The moment for individual empowerment in the region is now more than ever, and this film is a humble tool to help shape alternative narratives for both residents and visitors alike.
The film was first exhibited to the 20 communities that it represents, with over a thousand local peninsula folks collectively watching it. It has recently played in 18 festivals, where it’s been awarded best International documentary, best mexican documentary and best editing. We now have the confidence that the film is a true part of an untold story, needing to be told.
When you understand that half a million Mayan people there are at risk of a geopolitical modern ethnocide, one might ask, why are we only talking about jaguars and trees? This is a chance to implement human livelihood and purpose at the center of the discussion about development and progress. The obvious metaphor of the train, representing the industrial revolution, and the Yucatan Peninsula, repenting a pinnacle of pre-colonial civilization, meet in the middle of this film and gives us the opportunity as viewers to step back and rethink everything we know as `progress.’