“This is a creole culture and what it takes is a great ability to adapt and a willingness to do so, and still hold on.”
Natalie Daise (nah-tah-lee dayz), story-teller, artist
“If you can’t hold onto the land, you can’t hold onto the culture.”
Jabari Moketsi (jah-bahr-ee moh-ket-see), publisher Gullah Sentinel newspaper
“Mine is a living culture, not one of some 200 years ago. It's a culture that continues to shape our surroundings.”
Ron Daise (ron dayz), singer, culture preservationist
“We must tell our stories and govern our own community as our foreparents did. We know that 'empty sak cyan stan upright lone.’”
Marquetta L. Goodwine (Queen Quet) (mahr-ket-tah el good-wine kween kwet), preservationist
“The Gullah…had existed without the need for cash. Everything the Gullah people needed was done by them, among them, and you might say in coordination with the entire community.”
Emory Campbell (em-more-ee kam-bull), micro-biologist, activist
“With Gullah Geechee people we created and preserved our language under the threat of death for being literate.”
Sunn m'Cheaux (sun mih-show), Gullah language teacher
“Let us remember we descend from folks who…manifested freedom when everything else said otherwise.”
Sara Makeba Daise (sah-rah mah-kee-bah dayz), Cultural History Interpreter
“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