Artist statement: The lyrics for “Chì Mi na Mórbheanna” (The Mist-Covered Mountains of Home) were written in 1856 by Highlander John Cameron (Iain Camshroin) from Ballachulish, Scotland. It is believed that Cameron wrote this song after being displaced from his home in the Highlands to work in a factory in Glasgow. Written in Scots Gaelic, the lyrics are about missing the Highland mountains, culture and peoples.

The lyrics for “Smile in Your Sleep” were written in 1968 by Jim McLean. These lyrics explicitly name the displacement, violence and destruction of the Highland Clearances and the actions of the “Factors” (acting on behalf of English and Scottish Lords).  In order to gain access to land for grazing sheep, the cottages and shielings of the clanspeople were burned and the Highland culture was vilified and criminalized. McLean’s lyrics also draw attention to the practice of Scottish Highlanders being “shipped over the ocean”, which likely is referring to the practices of the land lords providing ‘assisted passage’ to the highlanders to ‘encourage’ them to emigrate to what is now known as North America.



Many of my ancestors came from Scotland (as well as Britain, France and Germany) to ‘North America’ and were tools of colonizing the lands and Indigenous peoples of these lands. In feeling the dehumanization and violence enacted by my people, I have come to believe that a person’s ability to dehumanize others is often rooted in experiences of being dehumanized themselves. I have been learning about the ways my ancestors chose to bow their heads, keep quiet, and numb their emotions in order to survive. I am working to understand the choices of my ancestors as best I can, while also endeavouring to dismantle the systems of colonization and dehumanization that their numbness and emotional repression enabled.  I feel this numbness and emotional repressions as I sing Jim McLean’s lyrics asking: where is the ‘Highland mettle?’, and observing the Highlanders with “heads bowed” and being ‘’huddled like cattle”.

I wrote the final verse of this medley as a call and a prayer to heal and to feel – which in my experience often involves crying. I have been learning about the spread of Christianity in the British Isles, and the repression and criminalization of the Celtic Gaelic practices of Keening. It is my understanding that Keening helps us to move through grief, foster a sense of our togetherness, and build strength. Strength within ourselves, with our ancestors and with all our relations. And so I found the words for the final verse: “we cry as we wake”.

Tune: traditional
Lyrics for Scot Gaelic Chorus from Chì Mi na Mórbheanna (Mist Covered Mountains) written by John Cameron in 1856
dewarmusic.com/mist-covered-mountains-with-lyrics

Lyrics for English verses 1-5 from Smile in your Sleep by Jim McLean in 1968
 projects.handsupfortrad.scot/hall-of-fame/jim-mclean



Lyrics for English verse 6 by Kelsey Lavoie 2025

Kelsey Lavoie : vocals and acoustic 6-string guitar
Chris Wardmen: Electric guitar, Acoustic 12-string guitar, mixing and production 

chriswardman.com

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Chì Mi na Mórbheanna (Mist Covered Mountains) / Smile in Your Sleep / Cry as We Wake

Lyrics:

Chorus (John Cameron)
O chi, chi mi na morbheanna
O chi, chi mi na corrbheana
O chi, chi mi na coireachan
Chi mi na sgorran fo cheo.

[Translation:
Oh, I see, I see the great mountains
Oh I see, I see the lofty mountains
Oh I see, I see the corries
I see the peaks beneath the mist.]

Chorus 2 (Jim McLean)
Hush, hush, time to be sleeping
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping
Dreams o’ peace and o’ freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby

Verse 1 (JM):
Once our valleys were ringing
With sounds of our children singing
But now sheep bleat till the evening
And shielings lie empty and broken

Verse 2 (JM):
We stood with heads bowed in prayer
While factors laid our cottages bare,
The flames fired the clear mountain air
And many were dead in the morning.

Verse 3 (JM):
Where was our proud highland mettle
Our men (people) once so famed in battle
Now stand cowed, huddled like cattle
And wait to be shipped o’er the ocean

Verse 4 (JM):
No use pleading or praying
Now gone, gone, all hope of staying
So hush, hush, the anchor’s a-weighing
Don’t cry in your sleep, bonnie baby

Verse 5 (KL)
Rise Rise time to be waking
Rise Rise dreams are a quaking
Dreams of freedom justice and healing
And we cry as we wake Bonnie Baby

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