Taking Your Land

by Ian Sherwood

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 CAD or more

about

“Taking Your Land” is a reckoning with Sherwood’s colonial roots and intended as an open conversation about our collective role in our shared past and future.

Profits of the song will be donated to I Love First Peoples; a charity designed to empower Indigenous children and youth to succeed through education and the motivation to stay in school.

"The pandemic has been a strange time for us all. Early on I took time away from music to focus on my family, some renovations around the house and to pay closer attention the what was being said around me. In a short period of time we all experienced a major shift in our lives, loss of work, an indescribably tragedy in Nova Scotia with the largest mass killing in Canadian history, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement… my need to get in front of an audience and bleed my heart-out vanished. I spent a lot of time reflecting and talking to friends experiencing the same thing. I decided that I was going to wait until the music came back to me rather than force something out.

In fall 2020 I found myself around a camp fire with three of my white male friends and the conversation turned to our privilege, what it meant, how we got it , at whose expense, etc. We were all having the same thoughts, and asking the same questions; things that maybe we hadn’t spent enough time really considering as much as we should have.

Eventually, this song started coming out. Not all at once. Pretty slowly, actually. There’s even a part of the chorus that I started writing before the pandemic while I was in Australia and hearing a radio program about indigenous reclamation in that country.

As the song started to take form it was clear that I needed to do something with it. I wasn’t ready for a full record, and I didn’t want to benefit financially from it, so the idea of releasing it as a single and donating the profits seemed fitting to me.

The production Chris put on it and the addition of Geoff Arsenault and Ron Hynes playing really helped bring the song to next level. I’d love to say that it’s complete, but really, it’s just one of the first steps in a long journey."

lyrics

Taking your land

Taking your land, taking your land
Turning our heads while you take a stand
Stabbing your back while we’re shaking your hand
Giving it back so we can take it again

Listen then, there’s been a difference of opinion
there’s a history that’s true and There’s a history that’s written,
If I were you, I’d just find a way to manage
It’s easy enough to say
I was born with the advantage

Taking your land, taking your land
Turning our heads while you take a stand
Stabbing your back while we’re shaking your hand
Giving it back so we can take it again

And through the native timbers
I can hear you shout
Though your voice is tired
I still make it out

Why would you take my children
Have you no shame?
Why would kill my language
When did you lose your way?

Taking your land, taking your land
Turning our heads while you take a stand
Stabbing your back while we’re shaking your hand
Giving it back so we can take it again

credits

released November 26, 2021
Written by Ian Sherwood
Produced by Chris Kirby
Mastered by Parachute Mastering

Vocals, Guitar: Ian Sherwood
Keyboards, Banjo: Chris Kirby
Bass: Ronald Hynes
Drums: Geoff Arsenault

license

about

Ian Sherwood Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sherwood is a story teller and a constant creator. In 2012 he was named Male Artist of the Year by the International Acoustic Music Awards. He was the 2008 and 2010 Music Nova Scotia Musician Of The Year and has been described as “... a natural performer who entertains as much with his wit and stories as with his songs.” - Bob Mersereau, CBC Radio, Fredericton. ... more

contact / help

Contact Ian Sherwood

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Ian Sherwood, you may also like:

Sword
by Angharad Drake

featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 17, 2015
go to album
A Little Older
by Alexia Avina

Epic, immersive songs that you disappear into, with rich layers of keys and ghostly vocal melodies conjuring a misty dreamworld. Bandcamp New & Notable May 2, 2022
go to album
After the Rain : A Night for Coltrane
by Teodross Avery

Recorded in Oakland, “After the Rain” pays tribute to the spirit and sound of John Coltrane in its deft, melodic tunes. Bandcamp New & Notable May 18, 2019
go to album
Looking Out My Window
by CARLENE

Drift away with these dreamlike songs from reclusive folk singer CARLENE, who pairs evocative lyrics with hushed arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable May 8, 2023
go to album
Cold Sea
by Oisin Leech

Irish singer-songwriter Oisin Leech's acoustic folk music is characterized by its muted beauty and intimate, solitary quality. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 16, 2024
go to album
Too Many Souls
by Avi C. Engel

The haunting new record from Canadian folk artist Avi C. Engel bridges old and new traditions with a minimalist approach. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 24, 2024
go to album
Here in the Pitch
by Jessica Pratt

On her fourth album, Jessica Pratt blends up 60s pop and bossa nova into a spooky mix of soft psychedelia. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 20, 2024
go to album