A Cultural Exchange (My Identity Crisis Continued)

A cultural exchange

I sat in the living room of our next door neighbour in Sydney as she discussed cultural norms with my mother and I. Family were running late (on "Island time" as she described it- "Island time" is akin to "African time") and her (representing Tonga although her mother was born in Samoa then adopted by a Tongan family) and my mother who is Samoan born and raised in Samoan culture till she married my Greek Father and they two became one and adopted a New Zealand way of life.  A "way of life" would be one way to describe "culture". They talked about things such as what you should say, the reverence "Reverends" attain in island culture, and the difference between getting on a packed public bus in Sydney compared to doing the same thing in the islands- one makes room and another attempted to make her feel inferior.

Somehow my mind wondered back to a time when I first discovered the difference between Island cultures. I had gone to High School on Auckland's North Shore at a private Catholic Girl's school where the main demographic make up was Caucasian/European New Zealanders, a few Asians and Indians and then there were the Islanders. The Islanders in my year at school were made up of Maori mixes (because pure indigenous New Zealanders don't exist anymore), a Tongan, Samoan, me, and other variations of Island blood... Basically, we were the brownies and we mixed because we had a commonality that stemmed back to our forefathers coming from a place called Hawaiki.

I had always been the brown girl in a class of pale skinned friends. I was the minority often yet very rarely felt it until we went to Australia and felt the sting of undeserved, uncalled for racism. It came in the form of words such as "blackie" and "Darth Vadar" and made this six to eight year old child feel inferior and unwelcome.

By the time I reached High School however, we were back in New Zealand and a new problem surfaced. I knew very little of my Island culture and I wanted to know more. A "palagi" girl stood on stage at assembly one day and told of a term she spent in South Auckland on what was called a "Cultural Exchange." It was a program that was brought out a few years earlier to allow students from one school of a certain cultural make-up experience that of another. Since my school was a predominantly European make-up, she went to a school that was only 30 minutes away but was made up of a predominantly Pacific Island student body.  As soon as I heard about this, I wanted in!

I applied and was accepted to go the next year.  I was so excited about going and being a part of not just a school environment that was different to what I was used to, but also to a family environment that was different to what I was used to.  The school was in a suburb where a lot of my extended family lived and it had hosted the previous Polynesian Festival which was the highlight of a teenage Polynesian's year in Auckland! (Especially if you lived on the North Shore and didn't get enough interaction with other Poly's like yourself.)

Anyway, the three months I spent in South Auckland at Nga Tapuwae College (as it was called then) were, to say the least, LIFE CHANGING! I discovered that even though I looked like I should fit in, my cultural upbringing and the experiences I had had, or my lack thereof, meant that I felt JUST as, if not more, out of place then I had all my life. I had to wear my home high school uniform which made me stick out like a sore thumb but I also had little cultural knowledge of what was acceptable behaviour and because I LOOKED like an Islander who SHOULD KNOW how to behave, I failed at meeting the expectations of my peers.  So I found friends who existed outside of the culture I should have fit into.

One thing that really shocked me, other than my inability to "fit in", about this whole experience was that I was no longer the brown girl.  I was the half caste girl.  All of the Island cultures had segregated themselves and hung around with their own cultural groups where they spoke their mother tongue to each other, they often went to the same churches, or they belonged to the same cultural group in the festival. There was the Tongan corner, the Samoan corner, the Cook Island group, the Niuean group and then there was a whole other school within the school for the Maori students.  I had come from a place where there was unity among all of us islanders and gone to a place where there were obvious boundaries around who belonged to who. Colours had been associated with certain Islands, tension was felt and trouble brewed.  And amongst them all, I fit nowhere. I wasn't truly Samoan and I didn't even know how to behave Samoan in a context of peers so I found some Cook Island friends and I struggled internally with it all.

Right now there's some racial tension happening in my heart country. I came to a country where I thought that everybody was Ethiopian...but I've had discussions over the years about history and language and culture and I've discovered that some people don't see themselves as Ethiopian but rather as a representative of the tribe that they are from. I've learnt that there is a type of segregation within a city like Addis where certain areas are affiliated with a certain tribal group. You can learn about cross cultural tension just by being in one city. You can also experience the beauty of the diversity that each of these regions hold. 

The beauty of culture, however, is marred when we decide that ours is better than anothers. It's called elitism and it comes at the cost of others feeling inferior and feeling left out. It happens all around the world. What we need is a REAL cultural exchange. We need to exchange our earthly culture for our Kingdom Culture,

Someone recently said to me, "Where there is no common vision, there is Division." This is true for countries, for churches, for marriages.  A shared vision is so important in establishing a place where Peace can reside.  I think even in the church these days we get too caught up in denominational boundaries. We look at the culture and doctrinal beliefs of our BROTHERS AND SISTERS in Christ and we set ourselves apart from them and sometimes maybe unintentionally, setting ourselves ABOVE them. 

I've had the privilege now of speaking and attending many different churches around the world and what I've come to realize is that if we believe in Jesus and are saved by His blood, we have the same blood running through our veins. We are in fact family and our Father God has called us all to be united. We work for one God, for one Kingdom purpose therefore we should take the advice of Paul as He wrote to the people in Phillipi from his jail cell...

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others

Phillipians 2:1-4

Here is the justice cry for people divided- an answer for what they struggle to find- be humble and value others above yourselves. Unity is a part of justice being established.

Please continue to pray for Peace in the land of Ethiopia. Pray as a united body in this time for a common cause. We are one in Christ. Be blessed