'I couldn't stay silent,' says Cree singer who performed powerful message for Pope Francis ottnews ottawa
Si Pih Ko, also known as Trina Francois, sang a message in Cree to the tune of the national anthem in an unscripted moment during Pope Francis's visit to Maskwacis, Alta., on Monday, July 25, 2022.It was a raw, powerful moment that seemed to stop time — a song performed emotionally in Cree to the tune of Canada's national anthem by an Indigenous woman wearing traditional regalia.
"We have appointed chiefs on our territories. Govern yourselves accordingly. 'Hiy Hiy' does not mean 'Thank you.' It means that I have nothing more to say," she said to the Pope in Cree." to Canada, but said she had to when the Pope was given a headdress and he put it over his skull cap, or zucchetto."Silence is power, but I couldn't remain silent," she said later to CBC News.
Growing up in English households, Hatt didn't learn her traditional language, so she didn't understand exactly what was being said."You could feel the passion and pain in her voice," she said. "She spoke for a lot of people across Canada and the fact it's a woman is even that much more powerful." William Elvis Thomas is an elder from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, Man., Si Kih Po's home community. He knows her personally and said he was proud to see her stand up so powerfully for what she believes in.
"She got our point across, not just her point, but our point across … That we're still here, that, even through all of this, all the hundreds of years of trying to wipe us out in Canada — and I don't say that lightly. There was a plan to genocide the Indigenous people of Canada. But you know what? We're still here."Brenda Hatt as a four-year-old living in an Alberta foster home as part of the Sixties Scoop.
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