Big Green Bus
Big green bus (all we want is an apology)
To hear this song, please visit: Big Green Bus
She stands beside the dusty road that runs across the prairie
Little Whitecalf Girl, wearing her best dress her grandma made for her
Her two braids heavy down her back, black and glistening
She had to do this, her mother said, so that the people could live.
A cloud of stinking dust and smoke, the big green bus approaches
She steps on, so many other children that look like her, Indian children
Everyone’s so quiet, silent tears running down their faces
Every now and then a kid loses it, cos we’re all so scared, she says
And she says,
All we want is an acknowledgment of the things we been thru
All we want is for the world to know,
how would you feel if it happened to you?
All we want is an apology from the President of the USA
All we want is for the world to know how we come to be this way
We get there, she says, and the first thing they do is they cut off your hair
There’s a big barrel off to the side, filled with braids
And they take away your name, they call you stuff like Mary Sue
And they say you gotta talk their way all the time,
If you talk your own way they beat you and throw you in the hole!
And you’re up before the sun, make your bed so a quarter bounces off
Take a cold shower, maybe,
then off to mass and chores scrubbing the floors
Those nuns are so mean, make you kneel on a broomstick,
hit you with a strap whenever they feel like, tell you you’re dirty
And the runaways, dressed in green, so as to be seen,
proud and silent scrubbing the floor with little round brushes
like you use to wash potatoes
And she says,
all we want is an acknowledgment
of the things we been thru.
All we want is for the world to know,
how would you feel if it happened to you?
All we want is an acknowledgment from the settlers of the USA
All we want is an apology from the churches that still stand to this day
All day long is prayers and reciting and lessons and chores
and mass three times a day!
But all the prayers and chores and scrubbing the floors
can’t take away the horror
Of when the priest comes to the dorm at night and calls one over
She goes, she has no choice,
the nuns say, obedience is better than sacrifice
Comes back later, part of her soul missing, looks in the glass,
the light in her eyes is gone
She stops, stands tall, looks herself in the face
speaks her own name in her own tongue
Translated, she says this
She says, I am Whitecalf Girl!
And I am a human being!
And I am one of the People!
And the light in her eyes blazes high
Jesus loves the little children,
all the little children of the world
Red or yellow, black or white, all are precious in his sight
And she says, all we want is an apology…
(Inspired by Stringing Rosaries by Denise K. Lajimoderiere
and a dream-visit from Whitecalf Girl.)
(All We Want is an Apology) Native Boarding Schools Genre: Folk / Storytelling Inspired by Stringing Rosaries by D.K.Lajimoderiere & A Dream Visit from White Calf Girl.
Please visit this song on soundcloud on.soundcloud.com/uafJ3 or Youtube https://youtu.be/XN2auNL3QT4
White-passing creole from New Orleans.
