únashay sanctuary
building sanctuary for unmet grief
hello and welcome.
Únashay is a grief sanctuary, 501(c)3 in the desert that offers reachable community care, through presence, space, the arts and companionship, all whilst forging a new emergent culture for grief.
It humbly sits on red earth of the Tewa people in northern New Mexico, and recognizes with honor, all that came and happened before it. It is a living experiment, born of the disturbance of living in a world that doesn’t know how to be with what is breaking, when everything is breaking.
In a culture where presence and support for the grieving is painfully out of reach⎯ we want to explore this abandoned territory by building reachable sanctuary for the grieving, where the gesture we hold is to court rather than “fix” what hurts; to listen, and travel with the Rio Abaja Rio “river beneath the river”. This vibrancy running from below, when not tended, begins to erode and turn into a thousand different arrows upon itself and the ‘other’; and when tended, flowers into a thousand different petals.
We want to tend this deeper river, and build a culture from the flowers rather than the arrows.
Thank you for being here. Please have a look around and click below to learn more.
with love, Aimee Wilson, Listener/ Executive Director of Únashay
If you attended our Grief as Sanctuary fundraiser last April at únashay, thank you! It was a beautiful time.
Consider leaving a testimonial of your time with us in our event guest book. We’d love to hear from you.
What is this in tangible form?
Únashay sits on 10 acres of Tewa land in Abiquiu, New Mexico. It is both a grief sanctuary and a private homestead. It has 2 guest houses with all amenities, private tiny dwellings (for the stewards), an outdoor kitchen with dining area and horno (clay oven), hand-carved yurt, and recording studio/ community creation space that is under construction.
Please have a look at our blueprint, and click below on any infrastructure you’d like to explore. Not all spaces are complete- as you see in the color key (i.e. land steward homes, recording studio, various land/ water systems).
If you wish to stay with us and/ or explore our offerings, please click the button below to learn more. And if you wish to contribute towards these projects, visit ‘give’.
Click image for fullscreen and then click on the image to zoom in.
Únashay blueprint, co-designed by San Isidros Permaculture Institute + Aimee Wilson, w/ graphic design help by Ryan Kowalchik.
Future Recording Studio + Creation space
☽ This is an unfinished space, that has yet to be funded. Our vision for it- is that it will be a recording studio, art space, performance venue, and community hub for gathering, creating, and the generative heart behind the sanctuary’s work.
Mongolian Ger, hand-carved circular house
☽ The ger (pronounced “yer”) is made of wood, felt and canvas. We use it as a quiet solo and/ or intimate gathering space for music, ritual, art exhibit, film, movement, community discourse and creation.
Hawk and Raven House
☽ These are our guest homes, with all amenities, within short walking distance of another. We host private solo and group stays in them, and are working hard to host sponsored grief and/ or artist residencies for under-resourced grieving kin.
Outdoor Kitchen and Horno
☽ This is a lovely outdoor space to gather, cook, have tea, hold classes, Noria grief cafés, have tea and watch the moon rise.