Indigenous Quotes

• I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.

  Serj Tankian

  Believe, Civilization, Psychology

  "Serj Tankian: Alternative Rock’s Political Poet". Interview with Gary Moskowitz, www.motherjones.com. November 9, 2007.

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• Citizenship has not delivered Indigenous Australians the same quality of life other Australians expect. Basic human rights involve health, housing, education, employment, economic opportunity, and equality before the law, and respect for cultural identity and cultural diversity. These human rights must be capable of being enjoyed otherwise they are empty gestures.

  Jackie Huggins

  Life, Opportunity, Law

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• Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life.

  Oren Lyons

  Rivers, Diversity, Lacrosse

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• We must respect each other's right to choose a collective destiny, and the opportunity to develop the legal and political rights for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples so that we may enjoy the right to maintain our culture, our heritage and our land, as a united Australia.

  Jackie Huggins

  Compassion, Opportunity, Destiny

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• We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

  Chief Seattle

  Motivational, Wisdom, Peace

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• We are all indigenous people on this planet, and we have to reorganize to get along.

  Rebecca Adamson

  People, Planets, Indigenous People

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• The true essence of reconciliation is more than making friends with nonindigenous people. Our motto is united Australia, one that respects the land and the heritage of its indigenous peoples and provides justice and equity for all. I think reconciliation is about changing the structures that govern us and trying to influence opinion leaders in whatever way we can.

  Jackie Huggins

  Thinking, Essence, Australia

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• We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Zoos, Past, Racism

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• We have reached a pivotal time in Indigenous affairs when for the first time, national attention is being paid to the horror of Indigenous family violence in this country. For the first time, an Australian Prime Minister has held a summit in the national capital to listen to concerns and ideas on this issue from a group of Indigenous leaders.

  Jackie Huggins

  Leadership, Country, Ideas

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• Although wrongs have been done me I live in hope. ... Now we are together again to make peace.

  Black Kettle

  Together Again, Done, Making Peace

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• The problem with politicians getting to know the issues in indigenous townships is that we tend to suffer from what Aboriginal people call the 'seagull syndrome' - we fly in, scratch around and fly out.

  Tony Abbott

  Issues, People, Suffering

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians - those who are indigenous and those who are not - to come together to reconcile and together build a new future for our nation.

  Kevin Rudd

  Country, Together, Citizens

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I support the indigenous people anywhere in the planet

  Edward James Olmos

  People, Support, Planets

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• What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Animal, Simple

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.484, Delphi Classics

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• For Indigenous Australians, equal rights and citizenship have not always translated into full participation in Australian society. All Indigenous Australians have only been counted in the census since the 1967 Referendum. Even so, State protection and welfare laws continued to control the lives of Indigenous Australians and denied them equal rights, well into the 1970's.

  Jackie Huggins

  Australia, Rights, Law

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• What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.

  Crowfoot

  Life, Change, Death

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• Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

  Crazy Horse

  Children, Native American, Parent

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• He [Hugo Chavez] put poverty at the heart of political debate. Rightly so, given the country's immense inequality and poverty. He invested heavily in social programs such as literacy, health clinics, and education. He promoted Venezuela's indigenous culture and urged compatriots to take pride in its pre-Columbian history. He called time on the US treating Latin America as its backyard.

  Rory Carroll

  Country, Latin, Heart

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• I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.

  Linda Ronstadt

  Mexican, Singing, Signatures

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• I find a difference between what gets called world music - a fusion of western music and music from different cultures in more of a modernized version - and Explorer Series stuff, which is completely undiluted indigenous folk music. That's a lot more powerful than a lot of the super-processed stuff that comes out now.

  Glenn Kotche

  Powerful, Differences, Fusion

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Since the beginning, Native Peoples lived a life of being in harmony with all that surrounds us. It is a belief that all humankind are related to each other. Each has a purpose, spirit and sacredness. It is an understanding with the Great Spirit or Creator that we will follow these ways. And in this understanding we believe we are related to all other living species.

  Dennis Banks

  Believe, Native American, People

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• How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

  Black Hawk

  Native American, Native Language, Looks

  Black Hawk, John B. Patterson (1836). “Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war”, p.97

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• [last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

  Crowfoot

  Sunset, Native American, Firefly

  "Aging in the Modern World: Selections from the Literature of Aging for Pleasure and Instruction". Book by ‎Clark Tibbitts, p. 222, 1957.

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• The most important thing is the script.

  Martin Scorsese

  Important, Scripts, Important Things

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• So, at one extreme you have indigenous, tribal societies trying to stem the race to disaster. At the other extreme, the richest, most powerful societies in world history, like the United States and Canada, are racing full-speed ahead to destroy the environment as quickly as possible.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, Race, Racing

  Noam Chomsky (2016). “Who Rules the World?”, p.119, Metropolitan Books

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