Our Native Daughters – Songs Of Our Native Daughters

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK

Our Native Daughters – Songs Of Our Native Daughters

This week’s Recommendation of The Week is one of the most powerful albums ever recorded. Songs Of Our Native Daughters by Our Native Daughters addresses some of the atrocities that Black Americans have faced since the inception of the United States and before. The songs are painful but powerful, and performed with the utmost pride.

Our Native Daughters was a project comprised of four unbelievable women: Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell. They all are incredible musicians who have all staked their claim to a genre that has not always been inclusive to Black or Indigenous people. Much of the music is performed on the banjo and other traditional folk instruments. These are all instruments that have been claimed and rebranded by white Americana, while ignoring the deep roots in African culture. These women are here to remind us that this is their culture, and through these powerful, poignant songs, they are reclaiming it for themselves and all Black Americans.

I first heard this album when it was released in 2019. It immediately struck me, and the pain it conveys is so palpable that I became emotionally overwhelmed. In early 2020, when the Pandemic was in full swing, the uncertainty of life was a cause for concern. As summer approached, we all witnessed the brutality of a system designed to oppress those whose skin color isn’t white.

On May 25, 2020, as the murder of George Floyd was laid witness to the whole world, we watched the despicable display of racist, brutalist force by the police. We have watched as this has happened for all our lives, yet at this moment, it finally hit for so many. We stood witness to our government flexing its authoritarianist muscles in support of forces across the country, as they set their sights on destroying its citizens in a racially fueled battle for power.

This was just one example among countless others in the history of this country. I call back to this moment because Songs Of Our Native Daughters rang out like an anthem and became my soundtrack for that summer and beyond. I felt the need to learn more, to listen more, and to try to understand how my privilege as a white man in America was significant; to pay closer attention to those who aren’t afforded the same privilege, and are oppressed every moment of their lives by a system that was built to operate through oppression. This album became my education, and I studied from it daily.

As you make your way through the album, the stories become more brutal, and their delivery of the horrific events becomes more sarcastic, more ironic in a brutal manner. It hits hard. Take for example the song “Black Myself”, which discusses the Paper Bag test. This was an abhorrent policy of granting rights and access to basic needs based on whether a person’s skin color was lighter or darker than a brown paper bag. It was commonplace in the southern states during Jim Crow, and its lingering bias still exists today. This is a truly disgusting, shameful policy that has been very real for Black and Brown Americans in daily life.

The brutal irony is on full display in the lyrics of “Barbados”, as it references the past while bringing it to the present. The complete lyrics are below and are a powerfully sad reminder of our continuing negligence and acceptance of the blood on our hands, as long as the price is right.

“Barbados” by Our Native Daughters

“I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves
And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves
What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and groans
It's almost enough to draw pity from stones

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see?
What? Give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea?!

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes
Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains
If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will
And tortures and groans will be multiplied still

I own I am shocked at prisoners in the mines
And kids sewing clothes for our most famous lines
What I hear of their wages seems slavery indeed
It's enough that I fear it's all rooted in greed

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum
For what about nickel, cobalt, lithium?
The garments we wear, the electronics we own?
What? Give up our tablets, our laptops, and phones?!”

This week, we approach a "special" birthday of our country - the 250th. The feeling is not joyous, but rather contemptuous. It’s hard to celebrate when the creed of the country is an empty promise, as the law of the land has made it and itself a mockery. We are not living up to our purpose, which is an absolute shame, or maybe we are, which is something so much worse. One thing is true for sure, that the fight for equality for all, and the struggle to make this country accountable for its actions and words has never been greater.

This past weekend, my wife and I were privileged to experience a community reading of "What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?" by Frederick Douglass. This incredibly important event took place in our town hall and was something that should be witnessed and experienced by all. It was read by many different people, each adding their own emotion and understanding to those powerful words. As we sat in the audience, taking it all in, overwhelmed in emotions of anger, sadness and complete awe at the magnitude of this experience, I started to reflect upon the power in the words and the lyrics from Songs Of Our Native Daughters. I saw the connection and how this great work of Frederick Douglass, and this powerful album are symbolic of undying strength and fight in the face of atrocity, bound together in the pain, but also in the hope.

As we approach the Fourth, I will reflect upon the lessons learned within these works and contemplate the atrocities of our past and present, and the infinite hope that we can listen, learn, take actions to repair, and grow into our future. We can be better. We must be better.

Essential Track: “Black Myself”