The hardest thing… Culture
As you are probably aware, each week I post on Facebook and Twitter a Weekly Story Starter, selected at random from one of my Story Starter themes. Some weeks, I receive a few little comments and stories, occasionally a blog post link, some weeks the silence is deafening. Last week was a little different, when the cards mentioned in this post’s heading came up, I got a simple question. Why? Why is culture the hardest thing? It got me thinking…
I have met and corresponded with this respondent on several occasions. We have quite a few things in common – we are both busy mums, running a business (or two). We both love to share our finds and thoughts in our blogs and network with like-minded people on Twitter. We love to see all kids – not just our own – challenged intellectually and creatively. She is far more fond of handbags than I am. While I don’t know her well enough to know her whole life story, it is readily apparent that she comes from quite a different cultural background to me. However, I have always been aware of, and built our relationship upon, our similarities.
From my perspective, culture is not a hard thing. It is a beautiful thing – creating the diversity of experience that enriches our lives through food, music, art, beliefs and traditions. For me, living in a multicultural country such as Australia has always been something to be embraced and enjoyed.
Easy for me to say! After all, I’m a fifth generation Australian – white, (lapsed) Catholic, a Collingwood supporter (I blame my family – 3rd generation, both sides). The Irish are no longer considered the scum of the earth, and thrown off their land, which was how many of my ancestors ended up here. The Catholic and Protestant kids no longer taunt each other on the way home from school the way they did in my mother’s day (or throw rocks the way they did in my grandmother’s day). The worst I can expect is that my hubby flatly REFUSES to barrack for Collingwood, even when they aren’t playing against his team (the Lions if you must know. It’s all fun and games in our house this week!) OK, as a Collingwood supporter, I might understand a little bit.
Yet, for some Australians, it isn’t that easy.
Sure, we’ll embrace their food, dance, music and art, but differences in colour, race or religion can still lead to discrimination, even violence. Those who have suffered the unknowable pain of war, starvation, fear of being killed are often treated worse than criminals, locked up for months at a time, not knowing what their future holds (at least a criminal knows!). A political campaign is waged to “stop the boats” and gains some support. It’s not that I’m in support of people smugglers, pirates that they are… but refugees are simply human beings, hoping for a better life, just as all of us who have come to these shores before us did (even if it was 40,000 years ago). Immigrants and refugees have created this amazing nation, as we know it, bringing with them their culture, traditions and stories.
I remember one day, one of my fellow classmates at uni told us about his escape from Vietnam (or it might have been Cambodia, I can’t remember – is it that important?). He was a small boy. They had only tiny paths through the minefields to walk, sleep, eat, go to the toilet on. Fear plagued them every day – would they escape, or get caught and possibly killed? Up to that point, even though I’d read books, watched the news, seen movies, I really didn’t understand just how hard or frightening it was. Nor how resilient humans, especially children, can be to overcome such hardships – until it was someone I knew – my peer, my friend. His story made the experience real, because it was real for him.
This is the power of the story. Stories allow us to understand others’ experiences and to build empathy, human to human. They remind us that we have far more in common than we have as differences. We all love, hope, dream, fail and succeed, are afraid, but continue on anyway. We all want a better life for our children.
Sure, culture is important. As the song says, “if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other”. But it’s important to remember that behind the beliefs, the traditions, the flavours, sounds, colours and lights of a culture there is just another human being.
And they have a story.
This week’s post was inspired by Story Starter cards from the Life theme. As mentioned, the cards selected were “The hardest thing…” and “Culture”.
2
Norlin says:
September 22, 2010 at 9:06 pm
What a lovely and heart warming post Cath! It is true, behind every culture there is a human being and many people seem to forget that. People seem to forget that everyone in Australia…well, their ancestors at least were from somewhere else, wanting a better future, for their family.
Cath says:
September 23, 2010 at 10:12 am
Thank for the inspiration.