Our Song

2017
Pen and ink on acrylic painted commander, kiln dried spruce
34” x 34” x 2”

It is said that a song belongs to the one who created it...

It is also said that we may let others borrow our song; let them perform it as we created it...

One must give credit to the song's creator, and thanks...

In my dreams, thoughts and art, I have many songs... I relate them to you as stories... I share the words that I cannot express as images...

Our songs, long ago, were taken from us...

Beaten from us as children...

Wiped from our collective memory by the pages of a book...

We were left unable to express our songs as we were taught, as a new and foreign language was shoved into our mouths...

...

Now we try to remember...

We ask our elders to share any fragments of songs they kept in secret; away from the destructive erasure of colonialism...

We ask them to share with joy and hope in our eyes...

We ask them to share with a determination and a promise that we will take back what is ours; what was ours; what will forever be ours...

They see this in our youth, and pass on to us what was passed on to them...

Our Song