Spoken word recording of When your people are sick by Jayda Marley.
I am forced to see this pandemic through an Afro-Indigenous lens
We fight for our land, they ignore us
Middle class people spread sickness, they send us all home & drown us in news of death,
They give names and heartfelt stories to their loved ones lost
Everyone forgets the missing and murdered women who never made the news stories
Everyone forgets Wet’suwet’en and their people
Everyone is suddenly happy to be “inconvenienced”
Everyone says “it is for the health of the people”
Everyone says “stay home, take care of each other”
Everyone says “we are in this together”
Everyone says “government funding, we all deserve it”
We fight for our land, they call us:
“People who don’t know forgiveness”
“A disease,”
“Leftovers of a rotting history,”
“Ungrateful.”
Surviving off of “government funding, they do not deserve it.”
They post their Amazon sage on day 5 of Social Distancing
They post their selfies on day 6 with an Amazon dreamcatcher in the background
They call this “healing”
When our people are sick they send body bags to the reserves
They call this reparations
When your people are sick they rush to find a cure
They call this a good use of medical funding
Doug Ford says no school, praise him
Justin Trudeau says no rent, praise him
Government officials find sympathy only in things that can affect the ones they love directly
Forget clean water
Forget green land
Forget human rights
Forget Indigenous communities
Forget it all
Indigenous youth block railroad tracks on their own Land:
“Jail them,”
“Burn them,”
“Kill them,”
“End them like you tried to end their Ancestors,”
“Run the trains straight through”
You ignore the Indigenous youth who protect the Land we all benefit from
But flip society upside down when your people are becoming ill
If our Land is sick we will never truly heal
There is no healing without clean water
There is no healing without clean air
There is no healing without Indigenous youth.
See Connections ⤴