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Time Traveler (feat. Desirae Harp)

by Lyla June

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about

When asked to write a song on the significance of time and how to be a good ancestor, I initially thought of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. I was privileged to learn many things from Chief Caleen Sisk and other tribal members when I lived with them during my undergraduate anthropology research. I noticed much of their wisdom was related to the wisdom of elders from my tribe, the Diné. They taught me that you can learn things by sitting in prayer in nature alone for days on end. They taught me that you can change the world by dancing in prayer. They taught me that the springs and summers were always spent preparing for the harsh winter to come. They taught me that a chief's duty was to take care of her people all the way from from the headwaters to the ocean. They taught me that we should always thank our ancestors for planting the trees that give us fruit to eat today. And that we should strive to give such things to children we will never meet.

lyrics

Time traveler running faster.
Warrior is born.
Battle to be won.

Past trauma, future hurt.
I’m a child of the dirt and
I'm ready to give birth.

Planting a dream.
Panting, I breathe.
Running towards the future
with a handful of seeds.

Stronger than greed.
I am stronger than hate.
I stand under the shade
of trees planted so long ago.

A product of ancestral love,
I’m here because my elders
danced in the sun.

They would give it all up for us
and from day one it was
practiced like religion
to prepare for the ones
to come.

We are here
to give all our love
to the ones unborn.

But this is insane.
Living for fame.
Living for the next quarter,
profits and gains.

You forgot love.
You forgot truth.
You forgot how to live for a time
beyond you.

It’s not about you.
It’s not about you.
It’s about the song that is
traveling through.

It travels through time.
Singers will die
but the song lives on
through matrilineal lines.

We are here
to give all our love
to the ones unborn.

Open your eyes.
Open your heart.
Draining aquifers before
they can recharge.

We’re not in charge.
Nature’s in charge.
Look to the stars
remember who you are.

Stay humble or fall.
We don’t know it all.
And we are not exempt from
natural law.

Live selfishly
and the structure will fall.
But if we live for those unborn
then the song will go on.


So before you take a book off the shelf,
take a look inside yourself.
Answers come to you at light speed.
I’m searching for knowledge
I can’t find on a newsfeed.
Knowledge found through intuition.
Knowledge found through fasting and dancing.
This ain’t superstition.
It’s ancestral tradition.

Throw me the spear of wisdom—
sharpened and sunlit.
I’m giving my life to the oneness.
I’m a warrior. I’m sun-kissed.
I’m armed but I’m harmless.
Protecting cycles of rain and cycles of snow.
Fighting for children whose names I will never know.

I look up and read the messages written all across the sky.
Messages telling us that it’s time to evolve or die.
It’s time to live this life right.
So that when our children look back,
they look back with pride.

credits

released April 22, 2018
Music Produced by Judah Kerr
Lyrics by Lyla June
Featuring Singer Desirae Harp

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all rights reserved

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about

Lyla June Albuquerque, New Mexico

Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her dynamic, multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. ... more

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