Where the Spirit Lives (1989)

David Hemblen: Reverend Buckley

Quotes 

• Reverend Buckley : I imagine you've already been imbued with Mr. Babcock's liberal vision of education for our little brown children of the prarie?

  Kathleen : Well, yes he...

  Reverend Buckley : The fact is a liberal approach isn't very effective in our work here. It's kindness that only prolongs despair. These children come to us from a dead culture. It's like a noose thrown around their necks, our job is to remove this terrible burden and give them their freedom. I'm sure if you understand that, you'll find your work here very rewarding, indeed.

• Reverend Buckley : Kathleen, believe me, I do understand the frustrations you feel. At first, well, the past seems almost insurmountable doesn't it? You know, I think that's why I took up gardening. These are all wildflowers, all local. Magazines have come to take photographs, yes.

  Kathleen : Yes, they're lovely...

  Reverend Buckley : Of course there - there nothing but weeds. Out there in the wild they grow in repugnant profusion. But here, in the confines of a carefully tended garden, well, you can see how beautifully they grow! Of course they don't transplant easily. They take more time, patience and work than domestic flowers. I've found, after I gather them, that I must first scrape every trace of the old soil from their roots and plant them in fertile, new earth. Water them well, weed them and cut them back often or they will return to the wild.

  Kathleen : Reverend Buckley... I'm talking about children, thinking, feeling creatures.

  Reverend Buckley : I assure you Kathleen, I assure you, so am I.

• Reverend Buckley : She is a bright and gifted child Kathleen and part your creation. Imagine if she became Barrington's heir, imagine how she can lead and elevate her people. All of our hopes and dreams for her, her potential is unlimited. But if you let them take her now the fruits of your work will wither and die. She will become a savage once more. Condemned to a life of squalor, with no thought but to eating and sleeping, bedded by a sucession of men. Mother to a brood of little bastards! But if you want, Kathleen, call them back. Yes, call them back, you're free to do so. But if you do be prepared to lose her forever.

  [after Kathleen discovers he lied about Astokomi's parent's deaths]