Unbroken: Indigenous Peoples Today

The Power of Craftwork and Song

Shaayí, a Native from the Tlingit, Haida, and Aishihik nations, plays a drum made by her cousin while also wearing a shawl made by her grandmother. As she played the drum she sang a song that she had not sang in many years. It was written as a memorial for a friend who's daughter had passed away.

In many Native nations, the gifts of song and craftwork are very powerful. They combine the energies of the items they are made from with the energy of their makers, and the person that they are gifted to carries those combined energies along with them.

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