Ruth First Quotes

Obviously because of my personal connection to Mandela and having had his story as part of my childhood, I knew how awesome he was.

The ANC was the product of a much earlier South Africa, a gradualist and non-tribal multi-racial organisation, driven to violence by the intransigence of the Afrikaner Nationalist Government, obsessed with improbable ideas of revolution.

Now, of course, we know there has been an end to apartheid in South Africa, but what excited me was seeing it in the context of history.

We are moving toward recognition of the first Australians in the Australian constitution.

Governor Isaac Stevens of the Washington Territory said there were a great many white people in our country, and many more would come; that he wanted the land marked out so that the Indians and the white man could be separated.

As a young man in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century, Gandhi developed satyagraha, a mode of political activism based upon moral persuasion, while mobilizing South Africa's small Indian minority against racial discrimination.

The white people should go back to Europe, and the country should be returned to the American Indians. This is the future I would like to see for the so-called United States.

There must be a just native policy or the white man would go under in South Africa.

The Indians have a right to the occupation of their lands, independent of the States within whose chartered lines they happen to be

The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land—the Indians is one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.

You cannot turn the clock back, you cannot give the island of Manhattan back to the indigenous, but on the other hand, you can ensure that the indigenous can maintain their way of life.

For those who may not know, it was the CBC that put in place the legislation that put sanctions against South Africa to end apartheid, and that took Mandela off the terrorist list.

One of my biggest regrets ever was not taking the time to go to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela. That is a big regret of mine. I should have figured out a way.

I always wanted to meet Nelson Mandela, and I have friends who knew him, but I didn't get to meet Mandela. I always thought he was a spectacular character.

Not a centimetre will be demarcated for Indigenous reserves.

I was obsessed with Nelson Mandela. I had big posters of him in my bedroom and he became my proxy father figure. He was in jail, so I could project all sorts of things about what he would say to me.

I've got 12 reserves in my riding and have always been very available and worked very diligently on a few files. I've been out any time there is major events. So I've always had an open door policy with the chiefs and individuals on- and off-reserve.

The children of Qunu stood for hours on the side of a brand new stretch of highway as they waited for the hearse carrying Nelson Mandela to come into view.

A lot of British people of my age would not have know of the terrible treatment of Nelson Mandela if not for Jerry Dammers and The Specials.

The federal government needs to make it clear that recognition of Indigenous rights means that when Indigenous bands and their leadership approve projects, we listen.

I was involved with the anti-apartheid movement through my work as an artist and also through my political commitment.

I was really lucky in that my mom and dad never got caught in the act, so to speak. So my mom was caught fraternizing with my dad. My mom was caught, you know, in the building that my father lived in. My mom was caught in a white neighborhood past curfew without the right permits. My mother was caught in transition. And that was key because had she been caught in the act, then, as the law says, she could've spent anywhere up to four years in prison.

Once the flames begin to catch the wind will blow it higher, oh Biko, Biko.

I'm inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine - you know how racist America was back then - imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That's bravery beyond comprehension.

Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands this piece of the earth itself as a sign that we restore them to you and your children forever.