CIM409 Week 1
Coming into this module, I am acutely aware of my situation as a Zimbabwean refugee living in Australia. I was born in 1990 and raised in a city called Bulawayo, to a family of English heritage. School history lessons were all about the Rhodesian wars of independence in the late 1970s and of Apartheid in South Africa in the 80’s and early 90’s. Reading the first article from the class content (Project Humanities, n.d.) on white privilege was certainly an eye-opener to me, but I will say that I had a different perspective, being the only white kid in primary school and my family being forced to leave the country in 2006. I never experienced racial violence, until I left Zimbabwe, but I was aware that it was happening through secondary information sources.
I recognize that this is a tough thing to talk about, as I must accept that Australia accepted me based on my being white, and surely there is no better example of white privilege. However, I can also reflect on the fact that it is traumatic to have to flee your home country, leave behind your childhood friends, and have to integrate into a very different culture. As a creative person, I draw on these life lessons, learning more about Australia and its customs and traditions. My creative practice is directed towards the things I find interesting here, like doof culture, the hippie culture, Asian-fusion cuisine, and technologically advanced live entertainment. I then draw on my Southern African experiences and memories to give my work a combination of influences and thereby uniqueness.
In one of the class readings titled ‘What Is A Discourse Approach?’ (Scollon, 2012), it states “… all of us belong to lots of different cultures at once”. Which on the surface sounds simple enough, for example in Australia we are generally used to eating pizza and curries, but I would add that exploring different cultures allows us to learn more about ourselves: one might find inspiration musically, augment their fashion identity or discover some new fantastical world (think anime).
My thoughts on Habitus by Bourdieu
Habitus is described as being the '“concept of how individuals self-regulate their own behaviour to fit social expectations” (Ramsey, 2023).
I note that Ramsey mentions that learning a new habitus is difficult, and I can attest to that fact in my own experience. Wanting to integrate into Australian culture had me learning how to speak like an ‘Aussie’, and in this I think I have succeeded. On the other hand, though, I lack the knowledge of Australian television and pop culture, and miss many references to them. I recently did sound engineering for a band that was led by a member of the Wiggles, and didn’t know any of the songs or dances during the whole show, which made me feel rather alienated, and several staff members who didn’t know my cultural heritage were shocked that I had no idea who the Wiggles were.
Reference List
Ramsey, G. (20 April, 2023). Pierre Bourdieu & Habitus (Sociology): Definition & Examples. Simply Sociology. https://simplysociology.com/pierre-bourdieu-habitus.html
Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W., & Jones, R. H. (2012). Chapter 1: What is a discourse approach? In Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated. https:// go.openathens.net/redirector/sae.edu.au?url=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com %2Flib%2Fsae%2Freader.action%3FdocID%3D7103430%26ppg%3D23
White privilege checklist. (n.d.). Project Humanities, Arizona State University. https:// projecthumanities.asu.edu/white-privilege-checklist
