Original toot date: 01 March, 2023

#WhoAmIWednesday - Culture and Identity

My father was born in Libya, as were his parents, and his grandparents. My father and his family always identified as Maltese, as this is where his family originated from.
Cultural influences in his family were muddled to say the least. The family spoke 3 different languages, their food and traditions were a mixture of Arabic and Maltese, but as my father come to Australia as a child, he had also learned the traditions and customs of Australia. In fact, since becoming an Australian Citizen in the mid 80’s, my father has identified simply as Australian.
This made it extremely difficult to find my cultural identity as a child. I was too Maltese for the Arabs and too Arabic for the Maltese. I was also too Aussie for both of them, but too ethnic for the Australians - even though my mother is 5th generation Australian with English heritage.
Culture days at school were particularly difficult; if I chose to celebrate my Maltese culture, then the Maltese kids would tell me I was not Maltese because my Dad wasn’t born there. If I chose to celebrate that my Dad was born in Libya, the kids retorted that I was not African. But I wanted to celebrate this heritage. I wanted to feel like I belong to these cultures and celebrate their unique attributes.

Read the full story here 👇
https://tinyurl.com/WAIFCulture

#WeAreBrimbank #Brimbank #Culture #Inclusion #Diversity #culturalidentity #diversitymatters #diversityandinclusion #maltese #malta

#WhoAmIWednesday - Culture and Identity

My father was born in Libya, as were his parents, and his grandparents. My father and his family always identified as Maltese, as this is where his family originated from.
Cultural influences in his family were muddled to say the least. The family spoke 3 different languages, their food and traditions were a mixture of Arabic and Maltese, but as my father come to Australia as a child, he had also learned the traditions and customs of Australia. In fact, since becoming an Australian Citizen in the mid 80’s, my father has identified simply as Australian.
This made it extremely difficult to find my cultural identity as a child. I was too Maltese for the Arabs and too Arabic for the Maltese. I was also too Aussie for both of them, but too ethnic for the Australians - even though my mother is 5th generation Australian with English heritage. Culture days at school were particularly difficult; if I chose to celebrate my Maltese culture, then the Maltese kids would tell me I was not Maltese because my Dad wasn’t born there. If I chose to celebrate that my Dad was born in Libya, the kids retorted that I was not African. But I wanted to celebrate this heritage. I wanted to feel like I belong to these cultures and celebrate their unique attributes.

Read the full story here 👇
https://tinyurl.com/WAIFCulture

#WeAreBrimbank #Brimbank #Culture #Inclusion #Diversity #culturalidentity #diversitymatters #diversityandinclusion #maltese #malta

@pliny My only gripe with it at the moment, as someone who struggles with my #culturalidentity and #nationality is the fact that I feel like i’m getting only one of those aspects consistently because of what server I joined. But seems like some looking arohnd would eventually remedy that.
Definitely kinder and slower I reckon! Interactions feel more purposeful like people choose to interact rather than just mindlessly scrolling. It’s nice, feels more #human.