Tamariki (feat. Dad)

Some say we had it hard but, our elders had it way harder That's why we the students they're the masters A generation of babies born to fatherless families Claimed as casualties of war Te Reo was beaten out of them by the law(yeah that's right) They were punished for breaking our native tongue Identity crisis strikes our people right now They damage they have done they knew the day would come That we would fight to get it back just check the stats Less than ten percent of us speak and that's a fact Speaking of stats Māori top the list for everything bad In this country from everyday practices went from Selling weed to fiends for Methamphetamine We're socially awkward I can tell A marae's a place they've never been So while we running around like headless chickens Trying to find ourselves victims of mental health Choosing to live in stealth bottled up nobody talks We all just keep it to ourselves so many problems While we're busy stressing out man What about our kids? What about our kids? What about our See we can't help if we don't know what's wrong Let's reach out keep the Whānau strong Let's do this for our kids we got to learn to forgive And move we only got one life to live, let's live it Lost souls roam homeless in a world corrupted by man Weak minds take short cuts only the hearty few Will take a stand I know my rights And I am gonna put up a fight for the land With the mic in my hand from the highest peak To the last grain of sand Māoridom is not taken serious enough In this world we live in so we can't adapt to the system Filling up graveyards and prisons gang violence The blind lead the blind in a herd of fiends Leaving the murder scene crimson Our culture dying still nobody listening, Lord I can't pretend I have all the answers But everything changed for me the day I became a father I learned to be more responsible for my actions Coz weather it's good or bad it all becomes a chain reaction And we running around like headless chickens Trying to find ourselves chasing material wealth Take it out on our spouse bottled up nobody talks We all just keep it to ourselves so many problems While we're busy stressing out man What about our kids? What about our kids? What about our See we can't help if we don't know what's wrong Let's reach out keep the Whānau strong Let's do this for our kids we got to learn to forgive And move we only got one life to live, let's live it (Dad speaks) In other words you're only gonna reep what you sow And the life I lived was work, work, work Is... but um I know it's not all to life My advice to the young parents is to love them now And care for them now because Cos You get my stage of life they're gone they're left Should've did this I should've did that but If you haven't planted that seed then you can't reep it It's, it's simple as that I remember times when we ahh It wasn't cool to show your love and affection to your partners Because It wasn't cool It wasn't a manly thing ahh it was almost A non existent in our time as children just something That you never talked about and there was a lot of Tapu things That we never talked about for various reasons I don't know why? What about our kids? What about our kids? What about our we can't help if we don't know what's wrong Let's reach out keep the Whānau strong Let's do this for our kids we got to learn to forgive And move we only got one life to live, let's live it