Singer searches for parents

Star Nayea:  a truth teller through musicThose looking for a soulful and powerful voice by an artist who happens to be Native are in for a satisfying audio journey that tells the story of Nayea's troubled childhood. The all-acoustic album rips straight to the emotional core with the song "Homeland." Nayea begs to know, "Why did you let them take me?"

Her feelings of abandonment are valid and heartfelt. As an infant, Nayea was taken from her home and placed with a dysfunctional and abusive non-Native family. She grew up in Detroit and, despite her misfortune, grew up with the influence of Motown and the burgeoning rock 'n' roll scene in her hometown. These influences helped her sing her way out of the pain.

"I used music as an outlet to release myself, to purge," she said. "It was my survival tool."

Nayea's said her search for her biological parents reached a stalemate when she discovered that her birth certificate was a forgery and the agency that placed her kept no records of her birth parents. All she knows is that she is Native, and her family likely comes from a tribe somewhere in the northern United States, or possibly Canada. She lives the "needle in the haystack" idiom: "I am still searching."