I am a member of the Muskogee people. I'm a poet, a musician, a dreamer of sorts, a questioner. Like everyone else, I'm looking for answers of some sort or the other.
Joy HarjoRead
When explorers first encountered my people, they called us heathens, sun worshippers. They didn't understand that the sun is a relative and illuminates our path on this earth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding different cultures and their beliefs.
Joy Harjo reflects on the misconceptions that outsiders had about her people, labeling them as 'heathens' and 'sun worshippers.' She highlights that the sun symbolizes guidance and enlightenment in their culture, indicating that true understanding comes from recognizing the deeper meanings behind others' practices and beliefs, rather than judging them superficially.
Themes
CultureUnderstandingBeliefsSunPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about cultural appreciation and respect.
More from Joy Harjo
All quotes βIt's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.
Joy HarjoRead
A story matrix connects all of us._x000D_ There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.
Joy HarjoRead
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.
Joy HarjoRead
Bottom line, I have to follow what my soul says, or my spirit. And my spirit said that poetry and the arts should be without borders, should be without political borders.
Joy HarjoRead
I don't like this romanticization of Indian people in which Indian people are looked at as spiritual saviors, as people who have always taken care of the land. We're human beings. But I think different cultures have developed different aspects of humanness.
Joy HarjoRead
Similar quotes
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; For now hath time made me his numbering clock: My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is Are clamorous goans, which strike upon my heart, Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans Show minutes, times, and hours.
William ShakespeareRead
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Bertrand RussellRead
It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.
Noam ChomskyRead
Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words. It is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.
Tim WiseRead
My choices, including those related to the day-to-day aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing.
Pope FrancisRead
Memory is a barricade against forgetting; light is a bulwark against darkness; life is a flex against the stillness of the grave. Maybe that's what I'm trying to do here, clear a space in all the debris, through all the anxieties and worries, where I can just exist, easily and simply, entire, for as long as I have left.
Helen HumphreysRead