WATERFALL
UNITY
ALLIANCE
The Waterfall Unity Alliance is dedicated to building alliances across movements and cultures, protecting our planet and nurturing a more just and connected world. Rooted in the Schoharie Creek bioregion of upstate New York, our work bridges the local and the global — supporting community-based initiatives while fostering collaborations with individuals and projects working to restore relationships of reciprocity and respect amongst all Peoples of the Earth. ​ As a fiscal sponsor, the Waterfall Unity Alliance has extended its mission by supporting original lineage holders and initiatives that promote cultural resilience and collective transformation.
CURRENT PROJECTS
The Bonga Culture Center is housed in one Haiti’s oldest and most dynamic family temples. Built in the 1960’s by Bonga’s father and mentor, André “Bobo” Jean-Baptiste, the Center, now considered a landmark of Afro-Haitian history, is located in Croix Des Mission in the La Plaine province of Haiti.
​
On a spectacular ribbon of cropland in the Schoharie Valley of Central New York sit the remains of a Kanien’kehá:ka Turtle Clan village on what is now 60-acre working fruit and berry farm. Over the summer of 2022, the Waterfall Unity Alliance purchased the land as the first landback farm in New York State.
Lázaro Medina Hernandez "Salsita" is a Cuban artist whose vibrant works are born of resilient creativity. His studio in Central Havana has become a vital community center that offers after-school programs, meals, art classes for youth and uplifts traditional Afro-Cuban music, dance and culture
RETURNING TO OUR ROOTS
The Waterfall Unity Alliance began as a frontline organization in 2015 to help stop the Constitution Pipeline. It is time to unite again.
PAST PROJECTS & EVENTS
WATERFALL UNITY FESTIVAL
WEST FULTON, NY
The Waterfall Unity Festival took place in 2023-2024 and featured over 40 artists who came to share their gifts and passions. The festival was a beautiful gathering in which friendships were formed, raised our vibrations and connected us all even more deeply to the land. They were community and love in action.
"In building the Longhouse we are making the connection between the sky (our true Longhouse) and the Earth. It will be a place of teaching about our creation stories and principles of living in harmony as they were given to our people in the original Good Message and reinforced by the Great Law of Peace." -- Kanerahtiio Jock
%20copy.jpg)
4 ARTISTS :: 4 WORLDS
COBLESKILL, NY
The exhibition in partnership with OSCAR (Organization of Schoharie County Artists) was part of the WUA’s effort to support “collaborations across movements and cultures” in the Schoharie Valley. Featuring: Bonga Jean Baptiste (Haiti), Lazaro Medina Hernandez (Cuba), Sebastian Gross Ossa (Chile) & Sarah Bachinger (USA).
MARIA ESTHER PALLARES
RECORDING PROJECT
The Waterfall Unity Alliance served as fiscal sponsor for a recording project by Maria Esther Pallares, a Brazilian musician, composer, and spiritual healer known for her work with the Guarani people, where she is recognized as a Pajé (spiritual healer).
STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
AT THE WATERFALL
Co-hosted by the Center For Sacred Studies and the Waterfall Unity Alliance, storytellers & Elders gathered at the Waterfall and Longhouse with the intention of offering guidance, stories and beautiful words addressing the challenges humanity faces today.
TREE PLANTING AT THE LONGHOUSE
The Waterfall Unity Alliance was kindly gifted a donation of Apple, Elderberry, Cranberry, Hickory, Pear and Red Willow trees from Roots To Heaven. A group of generous volunteers came to the land of the Longhouse to plant these trees in the ground - a meaningful gift to future generations.
Guided by the strawberry, wí:sÄ™t, the first fruit and heart medicine of the Haudenosaunee, Strawberry Wisdom offers land-based healing and language revitalization rooted in ancestral wisdom and tended for generations to come.