My granddaughter selected this song to sing in a pageant. It is a Native American pageant given we are from the original clan / we are original to this land- we did not invade. She selected the song to educate others about boarding schools that stole children from their tribes and many never got to return home. She knows an elder who endured the trauma of a boarding school and has scars permanently attached to her skin. My granddaughter is 11 and is very aware of the many violation's natives have endured and continue to endure. The lyrics demonstrate a struggle between a young girl living in her natural environment and then being uprooted and dressed in foreign clothing- it's an internal struggle between the two - assimilation-- "oceans apart"- conflicting identity- I want to be native but being forced ( colonization) to look like someone else.- "so much space between us" - the school kid is nothing like the original native kid. "stop asking me to stay"- adopt your ways and forsake my culture, "You have given me something that I can't live without"- my original person you are trying to change forever- I am native - always. She setup props on stage - one of the young girl in her buckskin and long hair and then one in a uniform and chopped off hair. - Showing how this assimilation permanently damaged her self-confidence, identity, self-worth, loss of family- loss of direction. Permanence of a trauma.
My granddaughter selected this song to sing in a pageant. It is a Native American pageant given we are from the original clan / we are original to this land- we did not invade. She selected the song to educate others about boarding schools that stole children from their tribes and many never got to return home. She knows an elder who endured the trauma of a boarding school and has scars permanently attached to her skin. My granddaughter is 11 and is very aware of the many violation's natives have endured and continue to endure. The lyrics demonstrate a struggle between a young girl living in her natural environment and then being uprooted and dressed in foreign clothing- it's an internal struggle between the two - assimilation-- "oceans apart"- conflicting identity- I want to be native but being forced ( colonization) to look like someone else.- "so much space between us" - the school kid is nothing like the original native kid. "stop asking me to stay"- adopt your ways and forsake my culture, "You have given me something that I can't live without"- my original person you are trying to change forever- I am native - always. She setup props on stage - one of the young girl in her buckskin and long hair and then one in a uniform and chopped off hair. - Showing how this assimilation permanently damaged her self-confidence, identity, self-worth, loss of family- loss of direction. Permanence of a trauma.