Music In Communities

Chants for the Arts & Culture Rally, March 4 2026:

Use your smarts

Fund the arts

Have a heart

Support the arts

Communities Need Arts

We are the beating heart 

Heritage, Culture and Art

This is where communities start

Culture in Communities

Should be a top priority 

Hey Hey, Ho Ho,

These cuts have got to go

“It’s Okay to Change Your Mind” - written by Annie Schlaefer and performed here by the Singing Resistance in Minneapolis, applies perfectly to this moment in Nova Scotia as well: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVFqTSKjpg9/

Lyrics:

It’s okay to change your mind, show us your courage, leave this behind

It’s okay to change your mind and you can join us, join us here anytime

Some of the songs and chants we've written so far at Climate Song Labs, plus songs that were sung at the Shoulder to Shoulder rally in November 2025: 

Ballad of the Long Lake Wildfire

Ch: G / / /  Em / / /  D / / /  C / / /

G / / /  Em / / / D / / / Em / / /

Vs: ||: Em / / /  Bm / / /  Am / / /  Em / / /  :||

Chorus: [G] Emergency alerts are blowing up my [Em] phone

[D] changes in the climate hitting [C] close to home

[G] one hot dry summer has [Em] thrown us in the fire

but the [D] oldest trees, they are the last to [Em] burn

(they will teach us if we’re willing to learn) - last time

[Em] It started with a spark, an evacuation [Bm] warning

woke us up, loud in the morning / [Am] fire spread fast, five hundred homes had to [Em] pack and go by the afternoon

Grab what’s precious what you need to keep / in case the rest is lost

you don’t know what you’ll be coming home to

sleeping on the floor at the community hall / someone go back to find the cats and dogs

haul the horses to a pasture up the road

volunteers gathering food and clothes / extension cords to charge our phones

call your family, let your mother know

chorus

fire crews come, 200 from Quebec, Ontario

water bombers from the north, out 5:30 in the morning, / to face danger on the land

they come back tired and dirty at dusk / cheered by the way community steps up

packing lunches and thank you letters / we all lend a hand

folks are finally allowed back home, there’s 20 gone, glad no one was hurt

but the view here will never be the same

some folks are on the long long road to rebuild, replant, new dreams, start again

setting up gofundmes and insurance claims

chorus

we wander through the cooling ash, where the younger stands were full of tinder

the company spray made dry fast fuel and fires we could not fight

continue to the ancient Wabanaki,  these old trees are the last ones standing

carbon locked in trunks the sparks could not ignite

old trees, layers of relations, community endures

out of the ashes  a tiny green sprout is peeking out / someday it may all come back, another chance to do it better next time round

Shoulder to Shoulder Rally Cry

call & response :

No fracking,

uranium

just friendship and peace

no golf course

no clearcuts

we are all treaty peeps

no fines

don’t undermine

our democracy

we have a right

to protect

our childrens’ legacy

We want a land

to hand down

seven generations

(all together) seven generations from now

(stay on I)

Peace and Friendship x 2

Shoulder to Shoulder x 2

Respect this land x2

Respect Mi’kmaqi x2

(All together) Peace and Friendship Shoulder to Shoulder

We are all Treaty People x 2

Hey Tim Houston

we have the power

we have the voice

you need to listen

you got your power

false pretences

listen to the people

we have the voice

(V) I want to dance

with my family

in the big old trees

(V) we want to sing

in the forest

sing by the sea

Rally Cries

call & response, repeat each line:

Gov Chant: 

Hey Tim Houston 

we have the power

we have the voice

you have to listen

take notice

we put you in

and we can take you out again 

You got your power

under false pretences 

listen to the people 

$50 000 Fines Chant: 

no fines

don’t undermine

our democracy

we have a right

to protect 

our childrens’ legacy

We want a land 

we can hand down

seven generations 

(all together) seven generations from now 

Treaty People Chant: 

Peace and Friendship x 2 

Shoulder to Shoulder x 2  

We are all Treaty People x 2 

(All together) Peace and Friendship Shoulder to Shoulder 

We are all Treaty People x 2

I Walk In The Spirit, by Maggie Wheeler

I walk in the spirit, I walk in the light 

*I walk for the water, the water is life 

And I call on my ancestors to my left and my right 

To walk with me, walk with me 

*I walk with my neighbours to fight the good fight

People Gonna Rise Like The Water

The people gonna rise like the water, 

We're going to calm this crisis down.

I hear the voice of my great-granddaughter:

Respect the Sacred now!

Whose Side Are You On 

Whose side are you on, now? 

Whose side are you on? 

(X2)

Storms surge and fires burn,

but you don't hear the call 

Cuz corporations keep paying you 

Does it weigh on you at all? 

We are the stewards, steady and true! For the land, for the forests, for medicine too!

PROTECT the LAND, the WATER, and TREES!   

Keep our home sacred and clean  Every rock!  Every river!  Every beach! Every tree!

We can grow money by caring for trees.  Let them grow old in diversity! 

While We Still Can - by Maurice Gave

E
We are treaty people, treaty people, treaty people, treaty-
(people)(silent)
C#m
Love the water, love the forest, love the wildlife, love the land
B
Take a stand, take a stand, take a stand, take a stand
F#m7 E
While we still can, we still can, we still can, we still can

<b>
The tortured forest is our mother (is our mother, is our mother)
Sisters, brothers hear the call (hear the call, hear the call)
Of wild creatures in the forest (in the forest, in the forest)
Wild creatures we are all (we are all, we are all)

<b>
We are water, (we are water, we are water, we are water)
Clay and soil, (clay and soil, clay and soil, clay and soil )
Shores and waters that surround us, (surround us, surround us)
Let our love, let our love, fuel our toil, fuel our toil, fuel our toil

<b>
We are treaty people, treaty people, treaty people, TREATY
Love the water, love the forest, love the wildlife, love the land
Take a stand, take a stand, take a stand, take a stand
While we still can, we still can, we still can, we still can

* Call and response where where possible

** First = last verse and are the only ones the crowd needs.
***Others with hard copy can sing other lines at the same
time (same melody, only (optional) chords change.

*CHORDS*
This version is set up for the key of E major, with guitar capo
on 2 nd fret, dropped F# (Like standard tuning, dropped D)

While We Still Can
Change key if you need to.