Cultural Assignment - Personal Reflection

Culture plays a very big part in the identity that people create for themselves.  A person’s culture stems from things such as what they have been raised to believe, the practices and rituals they undertake, their surroundings, the places and activities they have belonged to, the backgrounds they identify with, their ideas and values and even the way in which they treat their loved ones and other people around them.   There are so many things which impact upon each individual culture.  Culture isn’t just about the country that you come from or the language that you speak.  It’s much broader than that.  So many things contribute to the culture of an individual person.

Who am I?

I am Australian, born to Australian parents.  My dad’s parents are Australian and my Nanna is Australian.  My Grandfather was the oddball (well i mean, not literally, ha!), giving me the last of his Scottish blood.

Part of my culture is that I have been raised with musical gifts and talents.  My Mother came from a strong musical family and thus brought up my family to have an interest in music.  Within society, there are distinct groups that can even be interpreted as ‘sub-cultures’.  Some of the more predominant sub-cultures are sport, dance and in my case, music and indeed, there are many other sub-cultures within communities that people take interest in.  Likewise, people are often drawn away from sub-cultures that they are brought up with and they take interests in other activities.  This is called breaking the cycle with which we are accustomed to or brought up with.

As a child I was raised in a Christian household, both parents being ministers of the Christian faith. 

This has certainly impacted what I believe and the journey that I’ve taken has certainly had many ups and downs in leading me to this point thus far.  I believe that in order to be open-minded to what others believe, your own faith should be set upon a firm foundation.  As with many faiths, it is never solely based upon your upbringing but that which you decide to be true within your own heart.

This faith has been the basis of prejudices I have held and others, which I have overcome.  It seems that the less convinced I have been of my own faith, the more closed I have been in learning about different faiths, beliefs or attitudes to my own.  This strong grounding in my faith has allowed me to explore the beliefs of others and to remain open-minded to the things people believe.  Keeping an open mind allows me to learn new things I might otherwise have rejected.

Over the years, I've learnt that I can accept others and their values and ideals without actually having to believe those for myself.  It is also good to note that whilst you may not hold the same belief as someone else, it is never helpful to discredit what that person believes by labeling it as wrong.

Along with my parent’s occupation and influence on my faith, came many moves to different places.

I have always been raised in the country.  My Mother was a Jillaroo and my Scottish Grandfather owned a farm so it’s only natural that I was raised in rural areas.

My first encounter with other cultures different to my own was when I was in primary school.  We lived close by to a couple of families from Papua New Guinea.

My Mother’s interest in overseas work, particularly missionary work in Papua New Guinea and Africa, has certainly allowed me to remain open-minded to those of other cultures and I feel that this has opened my heart and personality to connect strongly with those from other countries and seeing my own parents work overseas has been an inspiration to work with the disadvantaged from other countries.

Multi-culture is much more prevalent in the city as opposed to the country and moving to the city as an adult has given me more friends from different faiths and of different ethnicities.

My family has been involved with The Salvation Army all my life and so even as a child, I have been exposed to the less advantaged people in society and my faith along with this exposure has definitely played a part in the way I feel about people less fortunate than myself.  It has taught me to think less of myself and to always think of others and the needs they have.

I’ve been to New Zealand, America and Mexico and had the privilege of working in summer camps in America where I had the opportunity to share Australian culture with the young campers, which was fun in a very stereotypical way.  It was a wonderful opportunity to meet Mexican children and African Americans, many of whom have become lifetime friends.

I have been exposed to people of different religions, which is part of a person’s culture.  I have learnt more about myself and what I believe and why I believe these things based on the things that other people believe for themselves.

As I’ve already mentioned, I have always enjoyed other cultures, I have always felt more alive the more that I am exposed to someone completely different than myself and even in my travels, I have never been content being a tourist but rather I enjoy living somewhere and living as the people of that culture live.  There is something much deeper in doing this.  It is a level that a tourist can’t experience and one which new things are learnt.

I find that when you do new things and when you listen to people, that is when they can teach you things about yourself that you may not have noticed otherwise and things that will impact upon the rest of your life.

The wonderful thing about being open to the different cultures people come from is that at the end of the day, we are all human beings and we all deserve to be respected and heard and to be given the same opportunities as each other in the way that we live our lives.

In my work with refugees and asylum seekers, it was astounding that at the end of the day, we could sit together and laugh about different things.  People that come from war-torn countries and devastation beyond my comprehension still had this need to laugh and to be heard.

Humanity as a whole, have the same needs as each other, which is why it’s so important to respect each other and to allow people the freedom to be themselves.  To understand people means to have a deeper sensitivity and to respect their individual needs and backgrounds. Humanity is more closed and less open-minded when judgment is passed and when respect is not given.  And when language becomes a barrier, often the eyes can say more than our mouth can and a simple smile is all it takes to show that we care.

I believe that people from other cultures, countries and religions, all have something unique to offer and that in order to live in peace, all it takes is to respect each other and give people the opportunity to be heard.