Urban Elder is a compelling, photo-animated
documentary set to original music. The Urban Elder of the title is Cree
ceremonial leader Vern Harper, a Spiritual teacher serving the Toronto area
native community. The video details the struggle of a spiritual traditionalist
to maintain and foster his people's earth based faith against the shadows
of the urban landscape.
Ballad of Asin(Vern Harper)
Here comes the story of an Indian
A half-breed Cree from the north
His Irish father he doesn't remember much
Since torn from his dead mom at four
When he was a young boy in a foster home
He taught himself from the radio
The Toronto streets were his classroom
His mother's last breath, his life
You can tear a man apart for the colour of his skin
But you can't tear the Indian from his heart
When all the dreams are gone, there is one thing left inside
The People of the Earth must survive
He tore himself from Christianity
Like he was torn from his blood
Living like a renegade
Getting what he could
From Marx and hippy drugs and stuff
Shooting in his veins
Taking all the pleasures
Of the dominant society's games
Then it came to a dead-end line where the streets revealed their name
Bound down to the res and time where the man hides all the pain
Little kids in cardboard shacks and mothers without a man
Warriors drunk in alley ditches while the medicine fought the band
Murder on the high prairies and torture in the cells
All the lies that the white man said and the goons trapped in their
hells
Ceremonies in secrecy, with prophecies on the line
Took Stone by the truth of his heart to fight right what's blind
You can tear a man apart for the colour of his skin
But you can't tear the Indian from his heart
When all the dreams are gone, their is one thing left inside
The Indian with the Earth must survive
Took him through Wounded Knee, Kenora and the Caravan
Found himself in the vision red, deep within the land
Suffering in the Sweat Lodge with Elders and Warriors
Flying low with the beating drum, the pipe tight within his hands
Spent time with the medicine, sobriety on his wheel
Getting ready for the coming fall, the west is on our heel
Twisted truth, tortured by, the bluemen with their push
When you're with the old ones, it doesn't matter all that much
You can tear a man apart for the color of his skin
But you can't tear the Indian from his heart
When all the dreams are gone there is one thing left inside
The Indian with the Earth will survive
Some people now know Asin as an Elder
Some wish he was just some Indian in a suburb
He's been beat up, imprisoned, for crimes he hadn't done
You can see the scars on his chest, for dancing in the sun
He says it doesn't get any easier, but it gets better all the time
When you're walking with the medicine, it's always a thin line
There ain't nothing that you'll ever need, that you'll never get
For my ancestors and all my relations, meegwetch
You can tear a man apart for the colour of his skin
But you can't tear the Indian from his heart
When all the dreams are gone there is one thing left inside
The Indian with the Eagle, will fly
He's a red man
He's not a dead man
He's going to be a free man
He's going to be a free man
He's going to be a free man
He's going to be a free man
He is a free man
Music, lyrics and images by Patrick Wey
All materials in this site are copyright 2004 Patrick
Wey
