Lee Maracle Quotes

This story deserves to be told; all stories do. Even the waves of the sea tell a story that deserves to be read. The stories that really need to be told are those that shake the very soul of you.

Peaceful struggle is all about expending strenuous effort to live our lives free from strife, free from war, free from conditions that annoy the mind. It annoys my mind to think about clear-cutting; it annoys my mind to consider the invasion and death of the people of Oka. It annoys my mind to imagine golfers tromping on the graves of Mohawk grandmothers, children and loved ones. So I struggle to put a stop to it. I walk, I picket, and I block the road, and I speak because I cannot watch a people or any of the earth's relatives die an unjust death.

Academicians waste a great deal of effort deleting character, plot and story from theoretical arguments

All these things occurred in each village but a village doesn’t make a nation and that’s what I got from him (Khahtsahlano) – yea, we were a nation once and we can be again.

I have seen many of you at book launches, panels, conferences, gatherings of all sorts, including protests against some injustice or other of which there are so many. Not a single Canadian has ever approached me to say: ‘Why are there so many injustices committed against Indigenous people?’ or ‘Why is there not a strong movement of support for justice and sovereignty for Indigenous people’s sovereignty movement in Canada?’ Canadians love causes, but they love the causes that are far away — out of their backyard, so to speak.

peace is always what is necessary. That whatever you do, let it contribute to peace.

humour is like a push. When you want to sit down, humour stands you up and pushes you forward...You need that motivating force, which is a little bit a push every now and then. And that's [the role] humour serves in all of our stories.

I am a caretaker. Every single Indigenous person here is a caretaker. Caretaker. Take care. Take care of creation. Creation is not inactive. To take care of creation is an active process, an imaginative process, and a process full of wonderment. It requires strenuous effort, it means healing ourselves of what we call "amber elbow disease." It cannot be done by people who are intoxicated, seeking the pleasure of parties. It cannot be done by disempowered people. It cannot be done by people who cannot imagine a different world, who cannot dream of a life of peace in which all creation is respected and cared for everywhere on this earth.

Teachings are not dictums to be blindly followed. They are meant to be the beginnings of the development of governance or theory, but the individual is expected to interpret them personally.

I always say to people, you have a banquet — you come to the table with your own culture, a full banquet. If you don't share it, it's not writing!

I think I've done what I set out to do, which is give Canada a glimpse of who we are.

It is impossible to give a lecture or speak on any serious issue in the Indigenous world without placing it in the context of colonialism and our need for decolonization.

What is the point of presenting the human condition in a language separate from the human experience: passion, emotion and character...We all strive to be orators

PEACE: tranquility, freedom from strife, freedom from warring conditions, freedom from conditions that annoy the mind. We have not had peace for some 281,614 days since Columbus first came here. Worse, our homeland has not experienced peace since this country's inception.

Don't be a passive soldier for corporate or military murder. With peace and harmony in your heart go out and spend great effort, strenuous effort, to change the story of Canada. Be active, be resolute, be caring, and we shall eventually have peace.