OLIVIA KOMAHCHEET

MAATU

ARTIST STATEMENT

The song “MAATU” (Comanche translation: up to someone or something, go through) highlights the act of preserving and blending American Indian tradition and legacy with proven forms of revitalization through translational songwriting and music production. Being a life-long creative, Olivia continues to accumulate knowledge, experience and an ever changing voice to curate innovative strategies to intertwine both past, present and future that can be enjoyed and understood universally. “MAATU” integrates Comanche language throughout the lyric, including kamakʉna (beloved / loved one), kʉ?rai (hope/ to have hope) yunaiʔtʉ (to feel at peace), katsowaatʉ (eternity, no end, afterlife), yʉ yʉ mukumiʔarʉ (live, move around, keep moving) to encourage to continuation of Indigenous language vitalization. Along with this, she incorporates her grandmother’s sample to further express the importance of seeking opportunities to learn and grow through past teachings. By using this unique landscape to seek deeper self-knowledge and purpose through music, Olivia intends to reveal the importance of amplifying Indigenous voices in a creative and innovative manner in order to effectively uplift other like minded change makers expressing their own interdisciplinary forms of radical authenticity and truth.