Hi all,
Firstly...I understand this topic can easily become offensive so I ask please could anyone who replies be considerate of eachother. I will try do this myself too because I would like this topic not to have to be closed.
Recently I attended a brainstorming forum to suggest ideas of how the government could improve the rights of women. I was one of the only people there as a non professional and honestly felt stupid and inadequate.
I spoke to a woman there on a break and her views have upset and shaken me even now over a week later. She was there as a professional. A counsellor, highly educated and fascinating to speak to. She was comfortable to discuss what it means to her to be an Indigenous Australian and answer my many questions without taking offense.
In particular, we spoke about how I find being called a non indigenous Australian offensive.
One thing she said threw me completely. I cannot understand it.
She suggested that my intergenerational trauma is that I have lost my culture and identity. That I don't know who I am. That because the DNA test said I am mostly English with a touch of Irish blood that I needed to find and reconnect with my culture.
At the time it just confused me. I brushed it off as "agree to disagree".
But the more I think about it the more upset I feel. I'm not English. I'm not Irish. I have absolutely no desire to seek out or try on another culture for size. I'm Australian. Non Aboriginal yes. But I do have a culture and an identity and I don't belong anywhere but here.
Until that moment I had never realised someone could see me as a person without culture.
I suppose to direct this can of worms the question I'm asking is this...
If you have no living memory of another culture, feel no sense of loss or disconnect and have family who are happy and proud of their culture as they see it, how can it be intergenerational trauma? Is this how many Aboriginal people see people like me?
Thanks.
Nat