TO OUR BLACK AND BROWN BABIES OF OCEAN & ISLANDS

You were born in bitter, bloody water

flowing for 500 years,

tainted and weighed down

by power and privilege,

captured by the American Gods

of White Supremacy.

In our village, white is not a color.

It is the lack of.

White is an elusive spirit

permeating the air,

blocking our airways,

blinding our own people

with hatred of themselves and each other.

Fear not!

For you bear the blood

of resistance,

of freedom fighters,

Pacific warriors

and oceanic navigators who find their way

under the veil of a bright twinkling past,

scattered in the vastness of a beautiful black sky.

Remember that creation occurs in blackness.

Remember that in our Pacific

gods were made of flesh and blood.

They could be argued and contested with,

and could, therefore, be brought down or raised up.

American gods are no different.

They too can be brought to justice.

Their alters can be burned down

to make room for peace and equity,

but while these gods live

they will smite you and cause you to feel

the pangs of inadequacy and mistrust.

Center yourself.

Acknowledge your mana—

the strength of your lineage so great

that generational powers of lightness, brightness, and whiteness

will attempt to steal your mana and hold you down.

Resist.

Resist and rise.

Rise like a mighty wave

of 40,000 by your side

and as you rise,

uplift the voiceless,

bring with you all those who have been held down

by that heavy white light of supremacy.

March ahead and take active solidarity

with your Black & Brown relatives

Stolen bodies on stolen lands

As you march today

You continue to march alongside our revolutionary past

Polynesian Panthers of 1971,

Mau Movement— early 1900’s Samoa,

Know that the liberation of Black life

in America

is the liberation of Blackbirds of the Pacific,

is the liberation of West Papua,

is the liberation of all lives that have suffered in the bowels of the Serpent of Supremacy.

And in your full power

When all bodies have risen from the ashes,

give thanks to the old gods of the natural world.

Give thanks to those who have come before you

and those who will journey with our legacies into the future.