Robert Whittaker Quotes

What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.

To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after - there's a strong respect for that in African culture.

Obviously, my Indigenous culture is very special to me.

I like to honor my West African and Taino ancestry, I consider it sacred and divine.

Pretty much all my mother's side is Kiwi, and we have a strong Maori heritage.

I feel so much more connected with my Asian side than I do with my British side - of course, I'm proud of my British side.

There is this really old school stereotypical notion in Australia that to be Aboriginal you have to be black: anything but white or pale skinned. What 'The Sapphires' does is open up the conversation that I've been having my whole life, the fact that being indigenous isn't about the color of your skin; it's about your connection to your culture.

A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.

I really hold on to my culture because it is what made me.

I'm part Maori. My mum's Maori, and she raised me. And my grandma, she's Maori.

I think there's something really painful about your identity being entirely composed of ghosts. For me, I didn't want to be this kid whose Dominicanness was something caught utterly in the past, is an abstraction, the thing that I write about. Instead I wanted it to be, first and foremost, a thing that I lived.

We've got to map all of our ancient history before it's gone because, let's face it, if we don't have a common heritage to share, something to get excited about, then what are we living for?

My cultural roots are something illusive.

People look at me and they don't see what they think is a typical Aboriginal.

I feel more Jewish than I do Iranian.

I have no sentiments for nationality or for soil. But I grew up in Israel, so those things are in my blood, and I want to be part of Israeli culture.

In 'The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow,' part of the 'Dear America' series, I took my childhood bravery and stubbornness and put that at the core of the Navajo girl, Sarah Nita. It helped me to identify with her survival and to write about her courageous journey and that of her people.

I have Aboriginal roots on my father's side, and have always indentified with that spirit. I feel a lot of my music comes from that place.

The thing about being an Indian person is that you feel most at home with your own people.

When the culture is strong, you've got this consistency where black people can grow up in these places with this voice just resonating about our special-ness in the universe. And I always say you're in trouble if you get too far away from that core that grounds you.

I think if I was Trinidadian, I would latch more on to the myths and romanticise the place more. I don't think it's my place to do that - they're not really mine. I'm an outsider.

Well, one hopes that if you're really related to the core of your particular culture, you have profound commitments to it, and that you are aware of how much you can strain it before you do violence to its essential nature.

We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community - and this nation.

I'm half Hawaiian and the haka is a very sacred thing, something your family teaches you - my father taught me.

My great grandparents are Scottish, and I have this very tenuous connection which I try and bump up whenever I can, because I'd much rather be Scottish than English.