For over 25 years, the Zen Peacemakers have been annually Bearing Witness at Auschwitz/Birkenau. In this spirit, it has long been our desire to create a bearing witness retreat around America’s racial history – as seen through the eyes of African Americans. The intention has always been to engage without becoming a tourist; to seek unity without ‘othering’ those with whom we Bear Witness.

Zen Peacemakers

The Eternal Song is a cinematic journey through timeless lands and their Indigenous cultures. Voices from around the world and across generations call us to witness the deep, ongoing scars of colonization on lands and peoples, and the healing that comes through ancestral wisdom. Entrusted with medicine stories, we grapple with colonial legacies, intergenerational trauma, our own fragmentation and culture of separation.

The film reveals how modernity severs our connection to nature, each other, and the ancestral realm, while feeding us empty promises of salvation, unlimited consumption and economic growth, and individual happiness. As we are drawn into the intricate web of kinship and honoring the living presence of Mother Earth, we awaken a remembrance. A sacred dance comes to life and we begin to hear the eternal song of Life itself, calling us back to belonging.