Speak

Lighting sacred sage gifted to us by our First Nations relatives in honor of the 215 spirits of the children found in a mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada.

Offerings of tears and sweet songs to the land as we collectively mourn the souls of these precious children and the many children who died and were buried in unmarked graves across occupied America.

Residential Schools were set up to “assimilate” stolen indigenous children into the colonized faith and lifeway - where they were violently abused, traumatized, and transgressed - where many died without ceremony, without their families even knowing. The last ‘residential schools,’ closed in the 1990s. Can we take a moment and take in that reality. Many of us were just beginning our walk in this world when they closed their doors and their legacy of violence, racism, and brutality against indigenous people’s continues on today. This happened in our lifetime and continues to happen in our lifetime.

I wrote a song called, ‘Burden of Many,” after first hearing about the priests brutally raping the children in these schools. I still remember weeping as I wrote the words through sobs of tears. I offer them here in this space with love in my heart and fire for justice in my womb.

“Mesmerized by swinging braids
Shades of caramel cream swirl
And that curl on the pages of her story
Enraptured with the sweet scent of innocence
And that presence that could bring the most ‘holy of men’ to his knees
It was the pretend magic that was the key

Auē Māmā ē
Auē Māmā ē

Shadows fall upon the dawn taking with them all that once was
Goodbye to the sparkle on her shoulders
Placed there is the burden of many
The sacrifice of plenty
Welcome baby to forced consequence
Cornered into silence

Auē Māmā ē
Auē Māmā ē

Cornered into silence
Speak
Speak
Speak”

I ke alo o Wākea,

na Hāwane

📸: @sarainfox
Slides from: @ashleycallingbull