“We are one, bound by the spirit of an island and Bilali the slave. Bound by high tide, fields, gossip, smoke mullet and our faith.”

Cornelia Bailey (kor-nee-lee-yah bay-lee)

story-keeper, historian

IMAGE SOURCE: Photo by Ben Gray in Sheila M. Poole,“Sapelo Island historian, community leader Cornelia Walker Bailey dies.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 18. Oct 2017. | TEXT SOURCE: Mary Hussmann. “Life-everlasting: Nature and Culture on Sapelo Isl…

IMAGE SOURCE: Photo by Ben Gray in Sheila M. Poole,“Sapelo Island historian, community leader Cornelia Walker Bailey dies.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 18. Oct 2017. | TEXT SOURCE: Mary Hussmann. “Life-everlasting: Nature and Culture on Sapelo Island.” Southern Cultures. Spring 2006.

QUOTE CONTEXT: “When Cornelia Bailey was a child, people grew, caught, or hunted most of their food. We had alligator dishes along with pork greens. We had game birds and shore birds . . . fish of all kinds, turtles of all kinds. We had deer, squirrel, rabbit, raccoon and possum.”

QUOTE QUESTION: What binds you to your People?


IMAGE CONTEXT: “Ms. Bailey sits on a bateau on the edge of a Sapelo Island salt marsh. This bateau is one of the two traditional hand-made Geechee boats that still survives on the island.“

IMAGE QUESTION: Where do you sit as the sun goes down and as the sun rises?


MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote and photo are from online periodicals.

MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: What are the online media sources that you trust to represent the passing of a beloved elder?


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“Let us remember we descend from folks who…manifested freedom when everything else said otherwise.”

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“We try to teach our children the culture and remind them that they can be great. We stick to our heritage and we intend to carry on as free Maroons as long as the world exists.”