Jully Black Will Change ‘O Canada’ Lyrics For Toronto Graduation Performance To ‘Home On Native Land’

etcanada.com:

When Jully Black performs Canada’s national anthem at the Toronto Metropolitan University’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday, July 27, she’ll be tweaking the lyrics to make an important point.

As CBC News reports, the “Seven Day Fool” singer will be altering the lyrics to “O Canada” at the behest of the university, changing “our home and native land” to “our home on native land,” in acknowledgement of Canada’s theft of Indigenous land. “It’s amazing not to feel invisible anymore, and to be welcomed into a space and asked to contribute to something so beautiful,” she said. READ MORE: Jully Black Honoured By Assembly Of First Nations After Changing ‘O Canada’ Lyrics Black had previously made the same lyric change when she sang the anthem back in February at the NBA All-Star game, and explained that the school — which recently changed its name from Ryerson University to Toronto Metropolitan University as a commitment to diversity, inclusion and reconciliation — asked her to use her tweaked lyrics.

According to Black, when she was weighing whether or not to change the lyrics for her All-Star game performance, she heard the voice of her late mother offering guidance, telling her, “Exercise wisdom, Jully.” READ MORE: Canadian Singer Jully Black’s Subtle Change To National Anthem At NBA All-Star Game Draws Praise  “So, for me to exercise any sort of fear, didn’t make any sense.

My mom would be like, ‘What are you doing?'” she explained. “As a Black, born Canadian woman, to me [the ceremony] is showing ‘OK, this is what Canada does look like.