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All is not forgotten When someone is forgiven Words I say to soften up The hardness that I'm livin'

I hate to say indifference Is becoming my religion But I haven't learned to pray In ways to satisfy tradition

When I think about identity

I think about my language And how my folks were taughtIt would be to my advantage To learn a foreign tongue They could not foresee the damage

Damn shame when it happens you don't — see it til it passes So where's all the support For Anishinaabemowin classes?

Assimilation tactics left no room for us to practice.And I really wish I could adjust.I really wish I could have just Listened with my heart and not my ego

I was fragile

Conditioned by the world to think my culture wasn't passed down But I learned the generosity It's in my genealogy So fuck all the bureaucracy And keep all your apologies

I know you're sorry but...

You're more lost than me Your land's across the Oceanand I'm right where I should be.

I reckon this damn nation Will force reconciliation Down the throats of our survivors And the people it's displacing

I know you're sorry.

And now you call on me To fix the broken hearts Created by your policies

These are the things that I think I know I am but a leaf on a tree that grows With roots in the ground,Like a seed that's sown In the dirt of the earth Is where I was born And it's where I will return When this journey ends And I've earned what I have learned

So tell me to get over it

I'm so fuckin' over it Steal everything in sight And teach me 'bout -private ownership Bleach everything you like And preach me 'bout pride of ownership Leech my inherent rights And tell me that I never owned this shit

As generations pass You'll act as if you never noticed it While there's kids committing suicide As a way out of the hopelessness

I know you're sorry.

You say you're not to blame.

Fill your heart to brim with guilt But not an ounce of shame.Break branches off our family trees And tell us times have changed

But the focus of this genocide At root remains intact,So instead of killing Indian kids Why don't we kill this Indian Act.