Honourable senators, I rise today to thank and celebrate Louise Bernice Halfe — Sky Dancer — as she completes her term as the ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

Ms. Halfe is a Cree elder, an accomplished literary figure, a social worker and a survivor of Blue Quills residential school in Alberta. I want to honour her by reading a powerful poem she wrote for our Senators for Climate Solutions group.

The poem is called Climate Change.

ni-capan, nosomis, — great grandchild, grandchild

this is all I have to offer these days

when the aski — earth

suffers.

Our people have always known

the aski — earth talks.

It is best to listen.

Offer tobacco

to mistassini

Lay your ear,

your hand,

against the rock.

Listen.

She will share

how we think of her

as blind.

Yet,

like water-life

she sees through

the silk screen

of her closed eyelids.

Pebbles that children collect

giggle in their pockets.

Remember. This was once

you.

Offer tobacco.

Curl your body

around the trunk of

a mitos — tree.

Listen. She will tell you

how she breathes for us.

How her medicines

can restore your lungs.

She will show you

Where you were born,

her many umbilical cords

rooted into the earth.

Generations of her children

reaching for their dreams.

Plant her babies.

Offer tobacco.

To the iskotew — fire. Feel her warmth.

Watch her dance. Know

she was the one who lit-up

when you were born.

She is the one who fuels

your love, your joy, your anger.

She encourages you

to use her with care.

Urges you toward your dreams.

She is the one

who speaks through

your eyes.

Offer tobacco.

To nipi, water.

The one we reach for

when the sun scorches

our breath. She will tell you

how she planted the seed

from your father’s body,

travelled in the darkness

to gush from your

mother’s womb. She will

ask for the droplets

that fall from the sky

to land on your tongue

as you dance in her rains.

Offer tobacco.

To yotin, wind.

She will sing, roar, murmur.

She carries all ancestors,

brings them to us,

the living soul

that we travel with.

She holds hands

with the earth, releases

waters, makes

room for fire when we

are delivered from the womb.

Offer tobacco.

Spread it in the garden,

where aski- the earth

waits

to greet

all of us.

These ni-capan, nosomis, — great grandchildren, grandchildren

our grandmothers,

grandfathers, always work

together, hold their hands

to deliver

our lives.

Thank you, Louise Halfe — Sky Dancer for this beautiful poem and for all that you do and for who you are. Thank you.