[Intro - chant, ipu drum, slow] Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono [Verse 1] I don’t come with guns, I come with paper Eleven letters signed in ink and aloha Late at night while my baby’s sleeping I’m typing our kingdom back into the record They took the land with a pen and a lie So I’m bringing it home with a pen and the truth Every page I file, every seal I press Is a prayer for the ones who came before me [Pre-Chorus] If our aliʻi could see us now Not just the highways, not just the towers They’d see their children standing up With the motto still alive in our mouths [Chorus] We don’t cry for the land anymore We rise for the land, we rise for the people We rise for the gods who never left The breath of the land was never taken Ua mau, ua mau Ke ea o ka ʻāina The life of the land lives on in righteousness And we are bringing Hawaiʻi home [Verse 2] They built condominiums on our sacred ground Put traffic lights where our aliʻi walked But underneath the concrete the ʻāina’s still breathing And she knows my name, she knows my voice I’m my mother’s daughter, red soil and salt water I carry our records like a kahu carries bones Kahoʻolawe, Kalaupapa, Lahaina I remember every name, I’m writing them home [Pre-Chorus] If our queen could read these letters She would know we never let her go We kept her flag, we kept her word We kept her people’s story whole [Chorus] We don’t cry for the land anymore We rise for the land, we rise for the people We rise for the gods who never left The breath of the land was never taken Ua mau, ua mau Ke ea o ka ʻāina The life of the land lives on in righteousness And we are bringing Hawaiʻi home [Bridge - stripped down, ukulele and voice] It’s not the fighting that brings her back It’s the pono, it’s the patience It’s the aunties and the uncles and the keiki It’s the paperwork, the protocol, the prayer Washington, Geneva, New York City Send the letters, hold the line One day my daughter will read these pages And know her mama helped bring her country home [Final Chorus - full choir, key change] We don’t cry for the land anymore We rise for the land, we rise for the people We rise for the gods who never left The breath of the land was never taken Ua mau, ua mau Ke ea o ka ʻāina The life of the land lives on in righteousness And we are bringing Hawaiʻi home We are bringing Hawaiʻi home [Outro - chant, ipu drum, fading] Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono (the breath is returning) Ua mau
