A big part of Koa’s yearning for freedom is about justice. Justice for the kids sitting on the sidelines. It’s about hope for freedom from injustice.

Hope flies in the face of injustice. Hope like twelve-year-old Sadako Sasaki, folding more than one thousand paper cranes while in the hospital fighting Leukemia caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Hope like twelve-year-old Koa, in a time of feeling broken and isolated, choosing the paper crane as the object that represents her for a project in art class.

The assignment was inspired by Nick Cave’s soundsuits, described as “surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture into vehicles for empowerment. They serve as an alien second skin that obscures race, gender, and class, allowing viewers to look without bias towards the wearer’s identity.”

Koa folded hundreds of paper cranes, stringing them on fishing line and attaching them to her soundsuit, wearing her wishes and her hope for freedom.

At the Sunrise Gathering 2019, we displayed her soundsuit and set up tables with and mountains of origami paper, pens for writing notes to Koa, and instructions for folding paper cranes. In the basket, this note was left for us. We do not know who Julie is or who invited her to accompany them, but we are grateful for the creative connection that was made between Julie, and Koa, and us.