Native America

("Stay" by the Halluci Nation playing) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, yeah Whoa, whoa (traffic humming in background) THOMAS: We just arrived in Brooklyn.

Doing a show here tonight.

We've helped in building community, but we're part of the wave, not leading it, you know?

We kind of react to where people are at.

HILL: Yeah, yeah, we throw up our light, and then people will gather.

But it's all, it's all existing community that's been here.

What's great is that, you know, sometimes, like, they'll live in a city like New York, and they wouldn't have seen each other since the last time they came to, you know, our show.

Microphone check, one-two, one-two.

And you want that in just your wedge, right?

HILL: Just my wedge, yeah.

- Cool.

THOMAS: This whole thing started with that idea, right, of, like, let's make a space for urban Indigenous people to gather.

And the reaction from the community was, "Oh, you guys have started this thing?

Like, now you can't stop it because you've filled a void."

(crowd cheering and applauding) HILL: All of our Indigenous sisters out there, this one's for y'all!

(crowd cheering) (playing "Sisters") THOMAS: Playing live music to people, that's part of the beauty of being a musician, right, is that, like, instant exchange of energy with people.

(song continues) HILL: Our sets are never the same.

Like, they always change up.

THOMAS: Basically, I'm deejaying and then Tim's live-sampling.

So, he's throwing in eagle cries and bomb effects.

(sounds of explosion and electronic airhorn playing) (crowd cheering) And then there's parts in the set where he'll actually completely take over and remix the song live.

We are not a conquered people ("The Virus" playing) THOMAS: Throughout the set, I'm veejaying, as well.

("The Virus" playing) With the history that we've had here in the past 500 years, it's become really hard to want to share who we are.

And representation of Indigenous people has always been through the lens of the other.

We've never had control of our own image.

So now, today, it's a new thing for us.

It's a really new thing for us.

You know, you know, here, got a, got a Native dude interviewing us for PBS, right?

Like, this is not...

These aren't the things that were happening even 15 years ago, right?

So, it's about us taking that power for ourselves, representing ourselves in the way we see ourselves.

FEMALE SINGER: The gods of my tribe have spoken They have said, "Do not trust the Pilgrims" And for all these reasons I have decided to stop you And burn your village to the ground ("Burn Your Village to the Ground" playing) THOMAS: These problems of colonialism have been going on for hundreds of years.

There's that automatic anger and animosity that is, just exists.

You know, you tap into it right away.

And that's because of not having common experiences.

HILL: If you have any energy left in you, now is the time to get it out!

THOMAS: So when I look out in our show and see people from all different nations, all different backgrounds, they are feeling those beats.

They're experiencing what we experience.

That's a common experience.

Now we're starting to have the basis, we're starting to have the level ground where we can start to build the table to have the conversation.

HILL: Brooklyn, I want everybody's hands in the air!

From the middle, left, right.

Let's go, get 'em up.

Do the wave!

Do the wave!

Do the wave!

Do the wave, Brooklyn, come on, do the wave!

Do the wave!

Do the wave!