Hannabah Blue-Spoken Word

Away From Home

Forced relocation to

Reservations

Not the kind that gets you a good table at a fancy restaurant,

It's a reservation for an unwanted and barren land

Where your primary destination is termination

The Long Walk

500 miles

From the place where we had the healthy traditions for sustainability and life

500 miles

To walk in snow, burning our feet, hallowing our hearts, and reminding us that we are powerless in this corrupted and twisted system

Away from home, away from home cold and tired and all alone, yes I'm 500 miles away from home

Today teenagers are

Being exiled from their homelands

Thrown out of their sanctuaries

For being brave enough to be who they are

Two Spirit

Many today are being cast away from their lands

Forced out

Metaphorically and physically

Into humiliation and shame

Onto the streets and into addictions that can take the place of the family and love they once knew

Now they intimately know the souls of depression

And too many of our Native children, are facing this affliction

And taking the Creator’s plan into their own hands

I can’t remember when I ate, it’s just thumb and walk and wait. And I’m still 500 miles away from home. If my luck had been just right, I’d be with them all tonight, but I’m still 500 miles away from home

Modern day removal is occurring

With " illegal aliens"

Marked as second class citizens

I thought that everyone regardless of race are by law recognized as people

I guess just not when you are born on the other side of an invisible line

Mother Earth recognizes no borders

No differences in her children

Except with those who take advantage of her

Damage her

Scar her

With imaginary lines that run like stitches from a crack job operation meant to separate and classify and quarantine people like plagues

This land of the brave

Should really be the land of the Braves

But you get punished if brave

Means different

Foreign, alien, other

It becomes illegal, dangerous, and threatening

But who is the alien, pilgrim?

And who is the threat, colonizer?

Who is danger to humanity, conformers?

Don't let these indigenoids cast their spells on you

they say

But, we are actually the ones who have Injunuity.

Away from home, away from home, cold and tired and all alone,  yes I'm still 500 miles away from home, 
oh I wonder when they'll let me come back home

Hannabah Blue is Diné (Navajo), originally from Kirtland, NM. Her clans are the Red Bottom Clan, born for Bilagaana. Her maternal grandparents’ clan is the Tangle People Clan, and her paternal grandparents are also Bilagaana. Hannabah has a breadth of experience working on social justice issues, particularly those affecting Queer People of Color, particularly Native and Indigenous communities.
Her most recent work experience was as a Capacity Building Assistance Specialist at the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center (NNAAPC). She worked at NNAAPC for over 3 years, where she coordinated technical assistance and HIV prevention interventions targeting Native women. She has a double major in Broadcast Journalism; and Gender and Sexuality Studies from NYU and is working towards a Maternal and Child Health Graduate Certificate focusing on Native women through the University of Arizona. She is also currently at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) pursuing a Masters of Science degree in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences where she focuses on the addressing gender and sexuality in equalities and their effects on health. Hannabah proudly serves as the HSPH Queer Student Alliance Vice President, and on the Board of Café Cultura, which promotes creative expression and leadership among Indigenous and Latino youth.