Thursday, May 27, 2010

IDENTITY MATTERS

photo of my wife, and I after a sweatlodge ceremony in 2009

Bi-racial identity

“My maternal grandfather protected me from this by keeping me from telling anyone I was an Indian boy. His reasons became clear in my early 30's when Negroes found out and almost crucified me. By then I had been fortified into the definitions of Gregory, and my response to belittling comments, and brutal assessments of character challenged uninformed remarks and shut them down. Now, detractors have to deal with powers within me.

So the landscape has changed as an Elder, and I am responsible for the young listening to their stories. I have become a presence somewhere in their awareness. It is an introspective place to live with others...” –Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

1 comment:

  1. This is so true one has to penetrate if not in mind by body to let them know that we are here also. The young children now have to listen to their elders so that they can learn we all have to live together, and try to survive what ever insults they go through as long as they understand who they are.
    But the beauty of it is that they just have to listen and learn, otherwise it would be like it was for those, years ago that had to go through all the insults without knowing why.
    Blessed be. Bori.

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