Voices We Heard From The Heart Of Mother Earth:
Spoken To you from my Accountability
by boona cheema
It don’t take a day to recognize sun
It don’t take a mountain climb to feel the earth
It don’t take but a tear to feel the water
It don’t take but a birds wing to feel the air
It don’t take nothing to commit to accountability
There is a place on the great waters of the Copper River in Alaska which the native people’s have named the Center of the Universe, as I heard the powerful sounds of hope, lineage stories of struggles and genocide, the militarization of the islands, the pollution of the waters, the ravaging of the earth, stripped of all rights my spirit moved from the that center to the once impenetrable wall of the United States Department of INJUSTICE informed and in partnership with the peoples at the Indigenous Plenary of the USSocial forum.. This wall must be penetrated, torn down, stripped of its hypocricy, its lies, its broken treaties, its ongoing behaviors and actions which create, suffering, death and eventual disappearance of all that we hold sacred.
Allies of the indigenous people’s were called upon to hold ourselves accountable for our role in the continued struggle for the return of the sun, earth and all that is in it, water and air to the right full owners and better stewards so all our seven generations have a place they can call home.
As a new immigrant I have blood on my hands when in my struggles for my people I have not stood as straight or walked as tall reached out as to the indigenous people of this land II could have and now must , support and help and forward their struggles at this most critical time for my past actions hold myself accountable and have blood on my hands.
Some of the words of the powerful speakers:
“ Indigeous rights are the foundation of human rights and we have to come to term with that” said Julie fisher of the Western Shoshone Defence Project”
“It is an amazing testament to the resilience that indigenous peoples are still here” Ikaki Hussey Aloha Anina Society
“There is a path towards peace..It will take all of us standing TOGETHER Enei Begaye of the Black Mesa Co-Alition,
The call to accountability was made: Let us hear it deeply.