A reflection
of Culture and Identity in my experience through education
My whole life I've identified myself as an Aboriginal Australian, a
descendant of the Wiradjuri tribe from Cowra.
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Wiradjuri, my tribe, the largest country of NSW.
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Both my primary and High schools had a very small percentage of
Indigenous students. Within both schools there was always a place where I
belonged due to my culture. According to Phillips, A. 2006 culture “is part of
the process through which any social organisation develops and reproduces
itself”. Within my school there was the social group of Indigenous students
that always went to excursions, had tutoring, mentoring and different cultural
experiences to help us engage with our traditional culture. Many of the
Indigenous kids, like me, were born and raised in Sydney urban cities, so there
were always programs and cultural awareness events happening at school to help
us engage with our traditional culture.
Although these events were regular and great, I still belonged to
my teenage sub culture, people I connected with through sense of “… music
style, clothing, general appearance and behaviour” (Gerrit Et Al 2002 P 433). I
always inter-related within both social groups and always had a respect for
both cultures. No one within my teenage-sub cultural group was Indigenous or
shared similar culture; however, we all shared the same interests which
maintained a sense of security with friends.
Although I feel that I identify as Indigenous at school there were many
conflicts due to the complexion of my skin. My complexion was lighter than most
Indigenous people but I always knew my true identity. Growing up through the
high school education system, with the 'Closing the Gap' initiative in place,
my biggest conflict was the arguments I faced for receiving benefits, such as
tutoring, mentoring and other government funded support. Many non-Indigenous
students thought it was unfair and would discriminate against certain things
and would toss me into the stereo-type of a soon to be “dole bludger” who would
live on Centrelink for the rest of my life.
My high school was South Sydney High School and it was indeed very
multicultural, according to Moran, A. 2011,
multiculturalism serves to “… accommodate diversity, and to avoid
illiberal tendencies, including demands for cultural assimilation”(p.2154)
which is what my school achieved across the student population. We had a wide
range of ethnic spread across a large population of enrolled students.
According to the myschool 50%
of the students have a language background other than English which shows every
second student has a different cultural background. ESL (English as a Second
Language) was offered as an English course and there were anti-racism programs
and social groups within the school to build awareness of discrimination and
multiculturalism within the school environment. Unfortunately the teaching
staff was not very multicultural, out of 49 teachers employed (From my recall,
according to the myschool website) all teachers belonged to the Anglo-Saxon
stereotype, among the staff multiculturalism was a small percentage.
Gerrit A, J,
(2002) ‘Smoking and Other
Substance Use as Distinct Features of Teenage Subcultures’, Journal of Adolescent Health,
Phillips, A,
(2006) ‘What is Culture’ London school of Economics and
Political Science
Moran, A
(2011) ‘Multiculturalism as
nation-building in Australia: Inclusive national identity and the embrace of
diversity.’
South Sydney High School
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