Having this identity_radical indigenous queer feminist_keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman." Katherine Paul (aka KP) is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and Mother of My Children is her debut album. Recorded in the middle of winter near her hometown in Northwest Washington, Paul's connection to the landscape's eerie beauty are palpable throughout as the album traces the full spectrum of confronting buried feelings and the loss of what life was supposed to look like. Paul reects, "I wrote this album in the fall of 2016 after two pretty big losses in my life. My mentor, Genevi?ve Castr?e, had just died from pancreatic cancer and the relationship I had with the rst woman I loved had drastically lessened and changed." Heavy and heartbroken, Paul found respite from the weight of such loss in the creation of these songs that "are about grief and love for people, but also about being a native person in what is the United States today." On Mother of My Children, the songs weave together to capture both the enduring and eeting experiences of loss, frustration, and dreaming. The structures are traditional, but the lyrics don't adhere to any format other than what feels right in the moment. Mother of My Children begins with lead single "Soft Stud," which Paul describes as her "queer anthem." It's "about the hardships of queer desire within an open relationship." It's followed by "Indians Never Die," a call out to colonizers and those who don't respect the Earth. As Standing Rock was happening, many people in Paul's life were coming together to ght for the most basic necessity to sustain human life: water. "Our treaty rights weren't being honored. Imagine hearing on the news that the government doesn't support you as a human being and never has. They don't care about the water, they don't care about how they are destroying what is around them. Indigenous people are the protectors of this land. Indians never die because this is our land that we will forever protect in the present and the afterlife.
