# Quote — Patricia Grace, Potiki

> The hills did not belong to us any more. At the same time we could not help but remember that land does not belong to people, but that people belong to the land. We could not forget that it was land who, in the beginning, held the secret, who contained our very beginnings within herself. It was land that held the seed and who kept the root hidden for a time when it would be needed. We turned our eyes away from what was happening to the hills and looked to the soil and to the sea. (Roimata, chapter 16 p110)

- Author: [Patricia Grace](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace.md)
- Book: [Potiki](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patricia_Grace#Potiki_(1986)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/the-hills-did

## More from this book

> She told of gifts that she'd been given, and how gifts once given cannot be taken away and do not change. Gifts did not change even though there could be a shifting in the self caused by pain. (The Stories, chapter 28 p174)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/she-told-of-gifts.md)

> Everything we need is here, but for some years we had had little contact with other people as we struggled for our lives and our land. It was good now to know new people and to feel their strength. It was good to have new skills and new ideas, and to listen to all the new stories told by all the people who came. It was good to have others to tell our own stories to, and to have them there sharing our land and our lives. Good had followed what was not good, on the circle of our days. (Toko, chapter 21 p145)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/everything-we-need.md)

> "People are strength too. Care for people and you are cared for, give strength to people and you are strong. It's land and people that are a person's self, and to give to the land and to give to the people is the best taonga of all. Giving is strength. We've always known it..." (The Stories, chapter 28 p176)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patricia-grace/potiki/people-are-strength.md)