A Song for First Nations

By Shelley Wilson

There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!

So many Moons of sorrow,

so many a silent tear,

adult despair and childhood fear,

robbed of all held dear...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Separations, strategic divisions,

religious intolerance, racist derisions,

sacred rites and languages forbidden,

knowledge lost or secretly hidden...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Promises made then broken,

slow miseries and pain unspoken,

power crushed, honour denied,

anger drugged, spirits tested and tried...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Now First Nations will remember

from the glowing of an ember,

Sacred Sunrise, Sacred Fire,

like a phoenix from the fire,

like an eagle rising higher,

like a hawk in soaring flight,

the sky-dancers of the light

revealing visions, inner sight...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Now all Nations will remember

Spirit's Truth in glowing ember,

abundance flows when greed is gone,

blessing Life in every-one...

The wealth of the Earth now held by few

could feed us all with surplus too,

providing all with basic needs,

creating peace through humane deeds...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Now all Nations will remember

from the glowing of an ember

that Earth's challenges are won

through the Unity of One,

through the message "We're all One!"...

through belief that we're all one,

sacred heart-fires, inner Sun,

shining Life in every-one...

(There's hope for a better tomorrow

and we're still standing here!)

Quotes from Grand Chief, Stan, at 100 Year Commemoration of Treaty #9. "We're still here." And "There's hope for a better tomorrow."

Reconciliation

Some look past the questions

Of Where? and When? and How?

Asking us instead

'What Would Love Do Now?'