Kiana Rivera
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.