Britannia’s Change Makers

Grade 6 and 7 students at Britannia Elementary on Vancouver’s East Side, spent a week immersed in youthLEADarts programs. Here is one of several videos they wrote, edited, performed in and produced during that time. Their art, their voices, powerful and resonant, hold both warning and hope. In their own words, they are ‘change makers’, they are ‘medicine’.

Change Makers

Poem by: Desmond, Elias, Joey, Jett

Listen to the drum

It calls us to enter the world of our ancestors

It tells us to work together

It warns us to gather knowledge before it is forgotten

It is our momentum

Listen to me, as I am the earth

I am screaming

I am being constantly ravaged…

Poisoned…

Toxic waste poured into my seas…

Listen to your heart

We’re in this canoe together

Pull the paddle as hard you can

We all have decisions to make

We are stones cast into the calm sea

Our ripples are our lessons

Listen to our voice

We believe we are all connected

We believe our generation can make a difference

We are change makers

Listen…listen closely…our world is dying…

But we are the medicine.