In this music video, spoken-word artist Lyla June offers a poetic reflection on time and the wisdom needed to care for future generations.

Sometimes my life’s so hard.
I just feel like giving up.
Then I think of my grandmas
and what they did to overcome.

Give me courage to be strong.
Help me carry on your song.
Help me to give all my love
to the young ones yet to come.

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.

 

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Lyla June is a poet, musician, human ecologist, public speaker, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. Her messages—shared through hip-hop, poetry, acoustic song, and speech—focus on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, and traditional land stewardship practices.

Please consider donating to the Salmon Restoration Project that the film was made for:  https://www.winnememwintu.org/