Skip to main content

Transcript: Tom Cook

Traditions are passed from generation to generation through family interactions

[Cook:]
Because each of these cultural things got to come back to what family are you talking about. Where does it come from? Because these are family ways. Extended families called tiospaye, related families, and together they make a band. And how the old men get along, the relatives, the cousins, you learn that by seeing it happen. In this case, a third of a century ago, all those old men are gone. But the way they talked to each other, related, the way they made their address to God and the ground and the songs and everything—we learned those, and we carry those today to transmit to the young, so that they stay connected to these ancient grounding ways.