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Tokitae

by Alix Thorpe

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about

Tokitae is an orca whale living in captivity and this song is a prayer for her freedom.

Tokitae was violently taken from her pod in the Salish Sea in 1970, aged 4, and has been living in captivity in a tank at Miami Seaquarium ever since. She is now 55 years old and still sings the songs taught to her by her mother, Ocean Sun, before the capture. Ocean Sun is still alive, aged 93, and there is hope for their reunion.

Tokitae was recently renamed Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (pronounced SKAH-lee-CHUKH-tah-NOT) by the Lummi Nation people, who are campaigning to bring her home. I feel deeply grateful to the Lummi Nation for their continued efforts to return Toki to freedom.

It has been a long and at times heartbreakingly painful personal journey bringing this song to completion, which makes sense to me given Tokitae’s plight. What happens to them happens to us and in a sense this is a song for freedom for all of our spirits.

The words of the song are taken from proto-Celtic, the ancestral language of the ancient indigenous Britons; a call across the seas to the spirit of Tokitae, praying that she can be free, that she can be returned home, and that she can sing again alongside her mother and family.

You can read more about the campaign to free Tokitae here:
sacredsea.org/skalichelhtenaut/?fbclid=IwAR1cD1LpmqEyFsoLP52LQcf65yOwc5hunkn0NA0mD-tzRB4TIG3eRzvuHrI

Any money from sales of this song will be donated to the campaign.

lyrics

Tokitae
Kaneo ati (Sing again)
Ad soroh mari (Return home to the sea)

credits

released November 11, 2021
Written by Alix Thorpe
Produced and arranged by Alix Thorpe, Michael Stanton and Tristan Starling
Edited and Mixed by Michael Stanton

Vocals - Alix Thorpe
Guitar, Octave Guitar and Percussion - Michael Stanton
Extra Guitar, Percussion and Gongs - Tristan Starling
Cello - Asha McCarthey

With special thanks to Tristan Starling for his help bringing this record into being.

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Alix Thorpe Bristol, UK

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