Reflective Writing 1: Photoboard

I chose four photos to portray what culture, identity, human and history means to me. This reflective writing piece will further detail those explanations by specifying the concepts in the paper, and how they have influenced my ideas.

The first photo I posted was one of my grandfather at his 2009 Investiture in Rarotonga. When my grandfather succeeded his title as Mata’iapo, there were protesters at the culturally important event to speak against the way the ceremony was not being traditionally followed (The Cook Islands Herald, 2009). I chose this particular photo because of the significance it carries for myself, my family, and – more importantly – my culture.

The next photo I shared was a collage of various images that I identified myself as: my Cook Island Maori, Tahitian, and Scottish heritage; my relationship status with my high school sweet heart; the music fandom I belong to; and my spiritual belief. Lawler writes that identity is “how individuals shape themselves in relation to each other.” (Lawler, 2008) One simply cannot identify themselves to only one identity group, which is why I created the collage to represent only a few of the groups I categorize myself with.

For human rights, I chose something very close to home that is an important issue in New Zealand society – homelessness. It is stated in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services…” (Assembly, 1948) As someone who lives in the city (and at one point, lived right across the road from the Auckland City Mission), it’s impossible not to walk through town and come across someone who is living on the streets and begging for food and money, and be unsure whether they are genuinely homeless and living in the lowest of the lows.

The last photo that I shared is an historical occurrence that is noticeably not talked about in New Zealand history. In 1971, the Polynesian Panthers (influenced by the Black Civil Rights Movement group, the ‘Black Panther’) was formed by a group of first generation Pacific Island students, whose main objectives were to help and empower the Polynesian Community against discriminatory practises that were being used against them. As a Pacific Islander whose family members were subjected to such treatment, I relate to this historical movement on a personal level.

According to the book ‘Cultural Studies: A Practical Introduction’, “…culture is the software of our lives. It is the program we live by, the rules that determine how we think and act.” (Ryan, 2010), and in the ‘Handbook of Cultural Sociology’, “…society” is not a thing. Instead, the social consists of networked relationships that develop through face-to-face and mediated interactions…where we enact our lives socially, episodically, in relation to other people.” (John R. Hall, 2010). Since sharing these photos and explaining the personal conceptual relation for each one, I am more self-aware of the issues in our local, national and global community. Essentially, I hope to make some kind of positive change in whatever societal and cultural way possible – even if that means buying a $5 meal from Burger King for someone on the street.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from Cook Islands Maori Dictionary: http://www.cook-islands-maori-dictionary.org/mataiapo

Assembly, U. N. (1948, December 10). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from United Nations: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

John R. Hall, L. G.-c. (2010). In L. G.-c. John R. Hall, Handbook of Cultural Sociology (p. 5). Oxon: Routledge.

Lawler, S. (2008). Identity: Sociological Perspectives. Polity.

Ryan, M. (2010). Cultural Studies: A Practical Introduction. Blackwell Publishing.

The Cook Islands Herald. (2009). Successor to Mataiapo Title Named! Rarotonga: The Cook Islands Herald.