COMPASS: A SENSE OF PLACE

A 2008 episode of the ABC television program Compass (which we watched in class) entitled ‘A sense of place’ follows the lives of four Australians and examines the importance of culture, heritage, upbringing and place in determining who they are (their identity). All four are of Vietnamese background with three of them arriving as refugees at varying stages of their lives and one being born shortly after her refugee mother had arrived in Australia. As the presenter of the program says ‘all of them have struggled for identity and meaning’ and a written quote during the program acknowledges that ‘Migrants are always in some sense out of place and they almost always attempt to create a space of being at home in a new place.’

Alistair Trung is a fashion designer who arrived in Australia as a young boy. Having lived the majority of his life in Australia he feels that he knows how this has contributed to his understanding of his identity. He says ‘I know my Australian side but there’s something else I need to search for before I’m complete.’ Meeting a Vietnamese friend encouraged Alistair to further investigate the contribution that Vietnamese culture and his heritage have made on his personal and professional identity. Alistair also says ‘I feel like I’m on the borderline of cultures’ and ‘I’m a sum of two cultures.’

Dominic Golding, an orphan, was flown to Australia as part of ‘Operation Babylift’ at the fall of Saigon to the communist north. He was adopted into an Australian family. Dominic says ‘I am constantly negotiating my Australian upbringing’ and questions ‘what does being Vietnamese mean?’ Dominic also grapples with the fact that he is an UFO; unidentified family origin, as he does not know of his parentage. Dominic explores the nature of his identity through a play that he wrote and performed but acknowledges that he has still not reached a stage where he is comfortable or fully understanding of who he really is.

Sister Hue Can differs from the other migrants in the program insofar as she arrived in Australia as an adult with a more fully realised personal and professional identity in her native Vietnam. Hue Can struggles with the change that she undergoes in her life stating ‘in a way I feel empty. I don’t know who I am. I feel very, very empty.’ Hue Can, or Emily as she is known in Australia, reveals that she is anxious about who she is and her place in her adopted homeland stating ‘ I want to find my identity. My true identity. Who I am.’ The program explores the role of Sister Hue Can’s religion Buddhism in defining who she is and Hue Can reveals that she believes her religion is ‘an education to bring us back to our true self.’

Finally, Margaret Nguyen, although born in Australia also feels somewhat between cultures. Her mother, a Vietnamese refugee, gave birth to her shortly after arriving in Australia. Margaret seeks to give back to the country that has given opportunities to her mother and helps recently arrived refugee families form Sudan and Afghanistan. She sees numerous similarities between these recent arrivals and her mother and seeks to gain a greater understanding of her mother and herself through the similarity of their experiences. Margaret understands the importance of culture and heritage in contributing to who she is and affirms that while her values may differ somewhat to those of her mother, it is important for her to recognise and maintain a connection to her mother’s culture and her own heritage.

Overall, the program highlights the challenges that all of us face as we mature in determining our own identity and sense of place and belonging in the world. Some of these stories may help you to develop ideas to write about your own experiences and remember that you can refer to additional sources, such as this program, to augment your writing and to demonstrate your greater engagement with ideas and issues related to the context study Identity and Belonging.

Meet the multividuals (subcultures)

Here is a link to an interesting article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005. It talks about subcultures and the way that young people are becoming increasingly difficult to put labels on as they don't neatly fit into these subcultures but are inclined to mix and match certain aspects of them to create unique hybrid identities; 'Meet the multividuals'.

The wikipedia entries on Subculture and youth subculture are useful springboards (starting points) for exploring the influence subcultures can have on individual and group identity and belonging.

MASTERCHEF'S POH

Poh, a recent contestant on the successful series Masterchef is a visual artist of Chinese-Malay background. This is an interesting article which among other things touches on her experience of growing up between 2 cultures. It may help you to develop some ideas about your own experiences. Another thing that you might like to consider is the effect on one's identity that comes from achieving a rapid rise to fame, which is the case for Poh and indeed for many other reality television contestants. Would it be difficult to avoid getting an inflated sense of one's worth and importance?

Also, if you were previously unable to leave a comment, that problem has now been rectified so feel free to leave any comments, thoughts, ideas and links!

THERESA McTERRY

Theresa McTerry is the third monologue in Johanna Murray Smith’s ‘Bombshells. We see Theresa on her wedding day and initially she seems to be elated with her impending nuptials. The monologue opens with ‘Delirious! I am so fucking happy! I’m so happy I could scream.’ However as the monologue goes on we see that Theresa is more enamoured with the ideal of marriage and the wedding (and in particular the dress) than the reality of married life, particularly to ‘Ted the pot-plant.’


The issues of Identity and Belongs are central to the monologue. The idea of identity as being transient or impermanent is raised in the monologue. Just as we go through life with changes in our identity; baby to child to teenager to adult, amongst many others, a significant change also occurs in one’s sense of self when entering into marriage. It is at this point that Theresa finds herself. ‘She stands on the cusp between the world of dreams and the world of fulfilment, of girl to woman, of me-ness to us-ness.’ In other words, Theresa feels that she is moving from an individual identity to a shared collective identity with Ted as a married couple. While identity can be strengthened and to a certain extent defined by the relationships that we have with others, it can also lead to sacrifices being made and this is what seems to scare Theresa. Despite this, Theresa also feels that she is gaining a greater sense of identity and belonging through her union with Ted evidenced by ‘I’m going to be somebody. Anybody. A wife’ and ‘love lifts us up where we belong.’ The innate human desire for companionship and intimacy is also seen in this monologue, ‘I want to be held, nurtured, nestled, owned.’

Expectations of society also play a significant role in this monologue. Theresa feels the expectation for women to be child-bearers as she says ‘No more pounding tick of the biological clock.’ She feels that by marrying Ted she will gain a greater sense of belonging within the wider world. Her comparison to several famous women in reference to their wedding shows that she feels that their existence is justified by their marriage and she also seeks acceptance from society by fulfilling her expected role. However, Theresa’s self curse ‘WHAT THE FUCK HAVE I DONE’ suggests that the decision to marry for superficial reasons is ultimately not self-fulfilling.

MERYL LOUISE DAVENPORT

Meryl Louise Davenport is the central character in the first monologue of Johanna Murray-Smith’s ‘Bombshells’. Murray-Smith constructs Davenport as a woman approaching middle age, struggling to fulfil expectations as she juggles a variety of different roles in her life; mother, wife, friend, neighbour, teacher and before all, woman. Murray-Smith’s use of short, sharp language reflects the seemingly frenetic pace at which Meryl is living her life. The conflict between Meryl’s inner self and the exterior by which she hopes to be perceived forms an important part of the monologue. While internally struggling with the different aspects of her identity she aims to present the image of a calm, beautiful and in-control woman to those she comes into contact with. ‘I have to be punctual or the teacher will think I’m a total failure’, ‘need to look glamorous for Barry’ and ‘care more about what the teacher thinks of me than Amy’s feelings’ are all examples of Meryl’s desire to be seen in this way.

The battle between the inner self and the way one is perceived in the world is an interesting idea to consider further as you engage with this area of study.

Meryl also battles against her low self-esteem or what even may be considered to be an inferiority complex. She chastises herself saying ‘I’m a lazy, selfish mother’ and is constantly comparing herself to others- ‘the baby down the road is sleeping through. That baby’s a month younger than our baby. We again see this self-criticism when Meryl places her own needs and wants above those of her children.

In some ways, Meryl appears to feel that her identity is under threat from the myriad expectations in her life. If she can’t look like Gwyneth Paltrow or Nigella Lawson, then how can she be a beautiful woman? If she can’t make husband Barry happy, how can she be considered a good wife? If she doesn’t know how many countries there are in Africa, then how can she be a good mother?

These are just some ideas about this monologue, I encourage you to develop your own ideas and interpretation and link it to ideas associated with Identity and Belonging. Also, googling: women media influence will help you understand how the media can affect women.

The role of women in today’s society has changed considerably from yesteryear. Look out for a future post about the role of women in society.