Echoes from Nanumea
Girard
Echoes from Nanumea
(Traditional-inspired island percussion song)
Intro (chant-like rhythm)
Hei—ha… hei—ha…
Sand in the drum, salt in the breath,
Hei—ha… hei—ha…
The island remembers what silence forgets.
Verse 1
Drums carved from hollowed tree skin,
Call out where the tides begin,
Footsteps answer in woven time,
Bare feet tracing a sacred line.
Shells click sharp like ancestral tongues,
Stories carried on beating drums,
Every strike is a name once known,
Every rhythm a seed once sown.
Chorus (call & response)
Hear—oh hear the echoes call!
From Nanumea, they rise and fall!
Boom of the drum and the clapping hands,
Voice of the sea and the shifting sands!
Verse 2
Firelight dances on painted skin,
The circle turns as the night moves in,
Old chants rising like ocean foam,
Pulling the distant spirits home.
The wind joins in with a hollow tone,
Like bone-flute notes carved out of stone,
And every heartbeat syncs as one,
With the rising moon and the setting sun.
Chorus (stronger percussion)
Hear—oh hear the echoes call!
From Nanumea, they rise and fall!
Drums like thunder beneath the sky,
Carrying names that never die!
Bridge (slow, ritual break)
If the sea forgets our shore,
Will the drum speak evermore?
If the island fades from sight,
Will the rhythm still ignite?
Percussion Break
(Polyrhythmic drumming intensifies)
Boom—ka! boom—ka!
Shell—clap, palm—strike!
Heart of the island, beating alike!
Final Chorus (full ensemble)
Hear—oh hear the echoes call!
From Nanumea, they rise and fall!
We are the sound the ocean keeps,
In every waking, in every sleep!
Boom of the drum, the circle spins,
The story never truly ends—
From Nanumea, far and free,
We are the rhythm of the sea.
Outro (fading chant)
Hei—ha… hei—ha…
Drum in the dark, wave in the sand,
Hei—ha… hei—ha…
The island lives in the beating hand.