Project Introduction
This project follows our ambassador, Matawa Baio, on a journey around the world to engage in conversations with people from diverse cultures, including Indigenous communities. Through these encounters, he explores their core values and dreams, how these have been carried through generations, and how they can be expressed and passed on to those yet to come.
We believe that listening to lived perspectives across cultures holds deep value for sustainable development and for learning how to coexist—with one another and with the Earth we all come from. By seeking the essential qualities shared by humanity across cultural boundaries, the project aims to transform these qualities into living dreams that can guide both present and future generations toward a more balanced and respectful world.
These conversations are not about preserving the past as something static. They are about understanding how ancestral knowledge, cultural wisdom, and personal dreams can remain alive in a changing world. They invite reflection on what it means to live well together, within natural limits, and with respect for human diversity.
The journey begins on 11 January 2026 in Copenhagen and continues, as far as possible, over land through the Netherlands, Turkey, the Middle East, India, the Far East, China, Japan, and Canada. The final destination is Iceland, reached approximately four to six months later. Traveling primarily by land is a conscious choice. It allows time, presence, and closeness to landscapes and people along the way—supporting slower encounters, deeper listening, and a journey shaped as much by the path itself as by the destinations.
Through Matawa Baio’s journey, the project seeks to create a shared space for listening, learning, and imagining—where stories become bridges between cultures, and where insight can grow into responsibility, care, and action for the future we are collectively shaping.
Matawa Baio – Biography
Matawa Baio was born in Italy in 1948 and moved to Denmark in 1975. He has studied Political Sciences, Adult Education, Project Leadership, and Ecovillage Design, complemented by his own studies in Philosophy and Religion.
Since 1998, he has run his own company working with olive wood products. He has extensive travel experience across Western Europe, Asia, Central America, and South America.
Matawa lives in Ecovillage Dyssekilde, where he has served as facilitator for external relations and for the sustainability group. He has also been a member of the Danish Ecovillage Network’s Council on two occasions.
His core values are respect, care, interconnection, simplicity, creativity, and Mother Earth. He is the author of the book A Sustainable Village (2022).