Lokahi Cultural fundraiser Together We Rise for Indigenous People and their rights
Watch Lokahi Part 1A – Opening with Native American Chief Caleen Sisk and Hawaiian Kumu Pua Case
Watch Lokahi Part 1B – Ecuador medicine man and Mexico Aztec Dancers and Harmony Keepers
Watch Lokahi Part 2 – Musicians Saritah and Cempoalli with Kooper Indigenize Curley
Watch Lokahi Part 3 – True Press playing at Lokahi
Watch Lokahi Part 4 – Nakho Bear plays at Lokahi Together We Rise (see bottom of post for song lyrics)
Watch Lokahi Part 5 – Hawane Rios plays Poli’ahu i ke kapu
Watch Lokahi Part 6 – Hawane Rios sings about Indigenous People and Culture
Watch Lokahi Part 7 – Together We Rise Grand Finale
Kumu Pua Case, her daughter Hawane Rios, Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winneman Wintu Indigenous People and her daughter perform at the “Together We Rise” Lokahi and #WeAreMaunaKea fundraiser to protect Mauna Kea held at Fairfax High School on Saturday, November 21, 2015. The event was sponsored by the Halau Hula ‘O Kawahineali’inohoikeaneunue-‘Elua to create awareness of the Indigenous people and culture and unify all indigenous people everywhere to save the sacred places and cultures of the Indigenous Peoples, such as Mauna Kea, Big Island HI, Mount Shasta, CA, and Oak Flat, AZ. The event featured hula dancers, ceremonies byIndigenous People from Central and South American and musical performances by Saritah, Cempoalli, Nahko, True Press andKekaimoku. Since I was filming this event for a documentaryproject I’m working on, I only managed to capture a few pictureson my iPhone to help spread the message.
In Hawaii, the We Are Mauna Kea movements is protesting a $1.3 billion, 18-story telescope project, that would not only desecrate the most sacred mountain to the Hawaiians, it would threaten the water aquifers for the entire Big Island. In Mount Shasta, raising the dam would directly and detrimentally impact the water and salmon and the eco-systems connected to them and in Oak Flat, a $300 billion mining operation would implode an area 2.5 miles wide by 1,000 feet deep, destroying petroglyphs and land sacred to the Apache, Pima, Hohokam and Yavapai, threaten the water aquifers there as well and destroy a national park hat has been the center of the world’s largest bouldering competition for the past 15 years. These places need to preserved for all people and all generations!
NAHKO BEAR SONG LYRICS:
For Nahko Bear’s performance:
I did my best to transcribe the lyrics from the four songs Nakho Bear played. He didn’t name the songs specifically, but as best as I know, here they are:
Song 1: Grandfather / Grandmother
For the West
For the North
For the East
For the South
Grandfather, I’m calling on you, need your guidance now.
Grandmother, I’m calling on you, need your guidance now.
For the West
For the North
For the East
For the South
Grandfather, I’m calling on you, need your guidance now.
Grandmother, I’m calling on you, need your guidance now.
Song 2: a version of “On the Verge”
I wanna live everyday, there happen to be seven directions on a tray, tip toeing to the edge of my destiny.
Free-falling words can be a Mystery, speaking to me, companion to youth.
The confusion of the people that are suffering too.
Regroup and renew, time to regroup and renew the ambition of a nation.
All these jettin’ a decay a foundation, wasting, creating hostility among us.
Turning our back on our Mother. We’re turning our back on our Mother. Look at what we’ve done.
I remember, I remember. I forgive.
I remember, I remember. I remember. I forgive.
These people are all actors, senseless spineless racists, put plutonic restoration to my day to day endless. Father Liberty could never need to be contagious. Racing. Cause I’m thinking my truth. I got pennies in my pockets, but I’m picking fresh fruits yeah. Picking fresh fruits. Got pennies in my pockets but I’m picking fresh fruits yeah.
Cause I live in a land of abundance. Weather the rain off my roof savior to impress us and now we get to rough and be found and riding horses, almost got the courage that we lack to fight. Picking back through the land when there was food to hunt and there was food to hunt yeah. I got one last thing on my mind.
I remember, I remember. I forgive.
I remember, I remember. I remember. I forgive.
I’m learning the language of the planet we inhabit and stab it with the chemicals that we practice and I’ve had it with habits it’s tragic.
This trajectory course that we’re on. Separated from the dirt from ourselves from the song.
Every robot sings with his hand to his heart, I will kill forgotten n’ I will hit my mark.
And I will stand like a fool for three colors of treason.
Nobodies bombing me, but that the countries are weeping. Choppin’ the mountains in half can’t you hear the earth screamin’? Woa. Can’t you hear the earth screamin’?
Look at what we’ve done.
I remember, I remember. I forgive
I remember, I remember. I remember. I forgive.
On my own value put your trust in me yeah. Recognize the tragic. Dependent and bustlers. Searching for purpose beneath the rebel and wreckage.
The message: Forgiveness starts with me yeah.
Starts with me. Stop living with the people, debility of generations to come. Cause we live in the world. Woa. Woa.
You’re people killed my people. My people killed your people. But our people are all people. United by compassion for humanities sake. We wake and meditate and lie in a new day.
A new chapter in a book of a thousand tongues, yeah. A thousand tongues. We shall overcome.
Overcome. Overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome. I remember. I remember. We shall overcome.
We shall overcome. I remember. I remember. We shall overcome.
I forgive. I forgive. We shall overcome.
Song 3: This is a song to Creator.
Give, always give what you can. Even if your allies draw lines in the sand.
And Dig. Always dig a little deeper. Sometimes it’s hard to be my brother’s keeper.
Love. So you let love in. Baby I am home in the wake of your skin. And it’s crazy.
Everywhere a ceremony. Always be open to your path and your journey.
Yes. She cradles my loneliness. At home in her forest-ness. Universal test, for you to wake-up my love, put your hand on my chest and rest.
And in the cradle of my arms, the battle that we face is a place where the stars come from.
And you pick up the gun, my love we are destined to teach these ones to be brave.
And never run away. Carried you back from the womb on the first light of day.
The other day you were born, you came out perfect never meant to be torn in silence.
Never been so loud in the violence.
Never been so proud of the people.
When we’re fighting for the change that the Creator gives it all.
Despite all the rage.
We are animals and we cannot be caged.
Provoke us to fight, so we burn a little sage and write poetry.
Wiser than the enemy, we’ll never be.
The minority. An authority. Are you here to protect or arrest me?
I can’t tolerate the hate and I’m losing sleep.
Can’t breathe ’cause you’re choking down abhorring me.
Immorality. Yeah.
Arresting us. I wonder if she leads them or if they get lost.
And stars, stars. And stars.
So many parts to a heavy heart.
If there’s no beginning, then where am I to start?
Start. Start. Oh where to start?
Human souls, so we cop ’em into story telling poes
Cause we’re always different for a certain. Go. A pattern of physics erode,
Don’t believe what you’re told.
And open, open up your fist of misconception. You can fight like this and praise.
With the power of prayer of Gods and our stars, you can take the stairs to the heavens.
If you do much after seven hundred with the snakes and the great deception. No cult.
And this country from men who steal from the Mother on vapor with pen and we’re trippin’
Down the red road and we’re askin’
Is this the way we should go? Kissing. Soft top feet of my goddess.
We walk the Earth baby air, we got this.
Focus. And He’s redirected the rainfall.
And I’m resurrected stubborn, but I know the way.
You’re the skin on my drum to your rythym I will sway.
Take my hand. I won’t lead you astray.
We will not go gently into the darkest of days.
Grandma’s here. And she says persevere.
Take a walk in her mocs, to the trail of tears. And our fears, are the same as they ever were fears.
Numb the pain of her heart of God’s ears.
Always in motion, maybe I’ll never be an ocean.
Arches how they bend and detract off my conscious never slipped through the grip of my faces and my fury is a shine in your presence. A deliverance. Yeah.
Loveletters to God. I wonder if she reads them or if they get lost.
And Stars. Stars. And Stars.
So many parts to a heavy heart. If there’s no beginning then where am I to start?
Start. Start. Where would you start?
Song 4: a verson of Aloha Ke Akua
Cunning and baffling, off of my cheatin. I and my love, oh we talked.
Just like my dogma, this fine looking mantra, covered in ashes, I take me home. I’m shedding my antlers and making up answers.
To the mystery of nature, so reach for the stars.
Spruce trees and cedars now free up the rivers, the salmon will run. No dam can hold.
United a nation. It’s gonna take some patience. So as if you shapeshift, the walls have returned. Oh, the walls have returned.
Each day that I wake, I will praise, I will praise.
Each day that I wake, I give thanks, I give thanks.
Each day that I wake, I will praise. I will praise.
Each day that I wake, I give thanks, I give thanks.
Aloha, Aloha. Ke Akua, Ke Akua.
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana. Kuleana.
Aloha, Aloha. Ke Akua, Ke Akua.
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana. Kuleana.
Oooo mum. aa o Kai Aina.
#AlohaAina
Cunning and baffling, off of my cheating, lighten my load and bury me on
Shedding my antlers and making up answers, to the mystery of nature, so reach for the stars.
Spruce trees and cedars, now free up the rivers.
The salmon will run. No dam can hold.
The night of the nation. It’s gonna take some patience, so if you shapeshift.
The walls have returned. Oh no, the walls have returned. Oh no.
From the Waipio Valley, peaking on Tetons, follow the Klamath to the basin of my soul. Shining on Shasta, those, holy headwaters, dear old Columbia, you’re gorgeous sparkling eyes. Creator’s calling. She’s got my number. Where be my outlaws, we will rest in reason too.
Cause, Old things never die, you know as well as I.
We will return, we will return.
And, old things never die, you know as well as I.
We will return, we will return.
#WeAreMaunaKea, #TMTShutdown, #ProtectMaunaKea, #TogetherWeRise, #AlohaAina, #IdleNoMore, #Unity, #COP21, #Unistoten, #EarthGuardians, #IndigenousRising, #EarthLawTribunal, #DefendTheSacred, #ProtectTheWater, #SaveSacredSites, #RightsofNature, #ClimateJustice, #KeepitintheGround, #NoTarSands, #NoKXL, #NoMoreShastaDam, #NoDamRaise, #WinnemenWintu, #SaveOakFlat, #harmonykeepers
Culture. Cultures. Diversity. Indigenous People. First Peoples. Nahko Bear at Lokahi, Together We Rise.