"Crown" lyrics

[Maori:]

Trapped inside a system that wants to lock you in a cage
Born into crime and poverty, numbered are your days
The system doesn't want you here, saying you're the ones to blame
Push the people into the dirt, and you claim we're all the same

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down

He tikanga ture i hangaia kia taka mai ai tātou
Tūkinotia mai te mahi Kuinitanga
Ka taea te whakaora mamae i tuku iho mai?
Whakahokia te mana o ngā iwi o Aotearoa

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down

An institution built to fail
Staying hidden beyond the veil

Taikaha, tarukino
Tāhae, whakaherehere
Taikaha, tarukino
Tāhae, whakaherehere

I'll return to where I belong
Restore my roots and undo the wrong
Fight the tides of an imbalanced law
Can't wash away the mana in us all

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down
You can't weigh us down

[English translation:]

Trapped inside a system that wants to lock you in a cage
Born into crime and poverty, numbered are your days
The system doesn't want you here, saying you're the ones to blame
Push the people into the dirt, and you claim we're all the same

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down

A system built for us to fail
The crown treats us unfairly
Can we heal generations of trauma?
Restore the mana of our people

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down

An institution built to fail
Staying hidden beyond the veil

Violence, drugs
Theft, imprisonment
Violence, drugs
Theft, imprisonment

I'll return to where I belong
Restore my roots and undo the wrong
Fight the tides of an imbalanced law
Can't wash away the mana in us all

A loaded crown just to weigh us down
Prison cell agenda keeps us bound
Culture for profit and deaf to the sound
A loaded crown just to weigh us down
You can't weigh us down