Where the Spirit Lives (1989)

Michelle St. John: Komi, Amelia

Quotes 

• Komi : I got no home too.

  George : No? You want to come with me to Hawaii? We'll pick oranges off the tree. I bet they haven't even heard of Indians there.

• Mrs. Barrington : What do you want to be when you grow up Amelia?

  Komi : I would like to be a woman.

• Komi : It happened!

  Kathleen : What?

  Komi : Just now, I'm bleeding, it just happened.

  Kathleen : Shh. Amelia that's not the sort of thing you tell everyone. That's a very private thing.

  Komi : But you have to tell me what the ritual is, the White ritual, to become a woman. You have to help me!

  Kathleen : Well, there is no ritual dear. That sort of thing's all a part of your old ways. You're a Christian now.

• Komi : My family's all dead! They all got sick. They all died.

  Esther : Why you never told me that? But you still Indian ain't you? I don't know nothing about being Indian. Never had no family, been here all my life. But I still feel it, that don't ever die.

  Komi : No. It don't die.

• Komi : Dear Jesus, if this is a bad thing, I hope you forgive us.

  [smiles as Esther begins ritual] 

  Esther : You are my friend and now we are sisters. The moon is our grandmother. She brings... she brings...

  Komi : ...life to the earth.

  Esther : - life to the earth and the dew of the night as you will bring life to the earth. You are Amelia and now you will be - what should I call you?

  Komi : You say.

  Esther : I don't know. What did your name used to be?

  Komi : Astokomi.

  Esther : And now you will be Astokomi, again. Even when we become stars in the sky and your daughters and in their daughters, where you have given life, you will live forever.

• Komi : Goodbye Rachel. Touch the sun, become a star.

  [speaks a prayer in Kainaawa after having a traditional burial in secret] 

• Kathleen : Amelia.

  Komi : That is not my name. My name is Astokomi. And you are a liar.

  Kathleen : Komi.

  Komi : Nothing you can say is gonna make me go back there. We are going home!

  Kathleen : I didn't come here to take you back. I came to ask you to forgive me. Will you take these?

  [hands her books] 

  Kathleen : They're not lies. Maybe someday you and I will...

  [Astokomi exchanges a gift and leaves]