Posted: Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:00 am
"My dad told me that I was going to have to go 12 years (to the white school) and have white teachers. He told me to never forget, never forget that we are your teachers at home, in our language, in our culture and in our traditions. At school, those are your teachers. They are going to teach you how to live in a white man's world. Don't talk back to your teachers. Have respect for your teachers. Always respect a person that's teaching you - that's showing you what to do, because they believe you can learn.
Be a good listener. Don't talk back. Listen to all the things being told to you because as you go in life, it'll be coming back to you. You'll encounter something that your mother or your grandmother has told you and you'll know how to handle it.
I tell my children appreciate what you can afford, what you can have, what you can do.
My advice to our young people is to know who you are. Go turn around and look at your parents, turn around and look at your grandparents and above all look at yourself and you'll know who you are. And if your parents or grandparents have words of advice to tell you how to live today, pick it up, pick it up and take it with you because as time goes on you're going to need it."