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First Communion

from Indio Saravanja by Indio Saravanja

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Started this song in '99, finished it in around '04. Five years. Why? It had to be 'perfect and true'. Because it was about some people I grew up with who went through and still go through a lot more than any of us can imagine. I wrote it for them, the woman who gave me the first line, the survivor who tried to beat me up in a Yellowknife bar when I was 18 and then hugged me as he cried, and a whole bunch of friends. I also wrote it for Buffy Sainte Marie, thinking maybe she'd cover it some day. Anyways, it was an honor to be flown to the Truth and Reconciliation gathering in Inuvik many years later and see some healing before my very eyes, though it will take generations.
I wish we had cut a sweeter version of this one on the record, more like
the folk ballad version it belongs to. But we had Steve Earle's 'El Corazon', Lucinda Williams' 'Car Wheels' and Tom Petty 'Wildflowers' cranking most of the time during the making of this. All great albums, but I was talking more than singing some of these songs.

lyrics

First Communion

I haven't seen Mama since my First Communion
that's the only memory that I really have
it'd been a long time since I heard my language
it smelled like whiskey and it sounded sad
when she pulled me close and said we'd be together
I said don't cry Mama cause I'll see you soon
when I turned 18 the sisters pulled me over
said 'your Mama died one summer in the month of June'

My daddy was a dime-store 'drunken Indian'
they said he served the country in the Second World War
fighting for the freedom in the old Dominion
he came back a hero without knowing what for
they sent the white boys back to the girls they'd marry
to the towns they lived in to their farms and fields
but his plane touched down on a childless prairie
and a broken woman had to fight for her meals

And it was twenty years later when I tried to find him
the social workers told me that he'd probably died
given me up on account of his drinking
I'll never know how hard they really tried
I was living with a man who hit me once too often
on the edge of Green River in a one room shack
to this very day I don't remember what happened
but he never got up the time I hit him back

There were lots of women like me when I went to prison
we were from different places and we broke the same rules
we'd all lost our languages families and children
we were middle-aged orphans from the residence schools
I don't believe in justice like I do in healing
I don't believe you can heal a person with a lie
but you can't heal a person doesn't know he's human
and it was in that prison that I learned to cry

Tonight I'll light a candle and I'll pray for my mother
pray for my people pray for their dreams
sit beside that candle with my son and my daughter
pray they never have to see the things I've seen
when they moved a People like they'd move some cattle
from the land of the rivers to a fenced-in dream
generations of people stolen from each other
well I'm living for them now and I'm doing it clean
I'm living for them now and I'm doing it clean

credits

from Indio Saravanja, released October 5, 2005

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Indio Saravanja Toronto, Ontario

Argentine born, Arctic Canada raised, Indio Saravanja is a poetic songwriter, talented multi-instrumentalist, and adventurous composer, whose poignant, honest words cut to the bone. A dynamic performer who charms the crowd with his candid and often humorous tales, he is an also an exciting musician - solo or with a band, acoustic or electric. ... more

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