Hi everyone! <3

This is my first time starting a thread and I'm excited to hear what others have to say about - What makes you proud of your ethnicity?

Please take a couple of minutes to reflect about this topic and then share with others.

Australia is a gorgeous place to live in and I'm proud to be an Australia. What makes me proud of my Chinese ethnicity though is that Chinese food is amazing! Dumplings, Dim Sum, etc.... some of the food looks wacky but gosh, very yummy!

I am also super proud of my parents who immigrated to Australia. Dad is fluent with English because he studied in Canada but my Mum came to Australia without knowing how to speak or read English. Dad worked in a white people dominated place, so he worked extra hard to prove his worth. Mum raised her 3 young daughters in a country that was foreign to her. Sometimes when I get mad at my mum when we have a disagreement, I try and remind myself of the difficulties she faced in the past. If someone chucked me in a foreign country where I had to live, buy groceries, catch public transport (mum didn't know how to drive for the first couple of years), didn't know the language.... that's scary! My parents make me proud to be Chinese.

Your turn! :)

Ethnic backgrounds and roots can run deep in some communities. My ancestors arrived in this country due to persecution in Europe in the 1850s.

My husband and I moved to this region 5 years ago, a place my ancestors once called home and where they fought hard to make a new life for themselves.

All these generations later, for some people of this region, the fact I have a connection from the past makes me more "acceptable" and not so much of an outsider.

Ethnicity, origins of background, cultural identity and pride of nationality can affect us all, if we are newly arrived, first born Australians or have generations of ancestors calling this country home. We all came from somewhere to eventually call this country home. Even the First Peoples, the indigenous Australians had to come from somewhere. (Sorry if I have used the wrong term here and offended anyone)

We all have backgrounds. We all came from somewhere.

From Dools

Hi Blueskye,

This is a lovely idea for a thread!

I am proud of the ethnicity of my children, my husband and myself.

I'm third generation Aussie and hubby's parents immigrated from Poland.

I am proud of how our four year old and almost 3 year old are bilingual. I'm proud of the effort we all put in to support this. I spoke English only, Hubby spoke Polish only from their births. They absorbed both languages and never mix up which language to use. It amazes me.

I am proud of my husband. When he arrived in Australia he was 10. His name singled him out so he chose a nickname. At uni he decided he was sick of being embarrassed of who he was. If people couldn't bother to ask how to pronounce his name that is their drama not his. He is the strongest man I know.

I am proud of my parents in law. They left not knowing any English and worked in Africa to save enough to immigrate to Australia. They sacrificed for their children. To give them a future with better opportunities.

I am proud of my heritage. My grandparents taught me to feel a connection to my country both the environment and the freedoms we have.

I am proud of how I have been welcomed to share in a new culture as well as my own and best of all to give our children the best of both. And how my family and myself have embraced the differences as well as the similarities.

When I was 23 my friend took me to a psychic as a joke. She told me she saw airports and a foreign tongue in my future. And love. So much love. I laughed because I'm terrified of flying and thought that was impossible. And now I'm proud of our Polish Australian family. Thanks Psychic 😊.

Hi blueskye,

What a great question! it was really lovely to read your and Quercus' posts about what makes you proud of your ethnicity. I can certainly identify with all these things, for me there are many things that make me proud of my ethnicity.

Just to name a few; i am proud of my parent's determination and willingness to migrate and start a new life in Australia despite the hardships, racism and discrimination they faced which was rife in the early 1970's. I am proud of my father who taught himself English and navigated civil connections to become a successful businessman, I am proud of the little things that are my identity and background such as the Lebanese food and especially the Cedar trees that belongs only to Lebanon.
I am proud of my husband who was a freedom fighter back home in his younger years, and I'm proud of some of our leaders in Lebanon who are now finally advocating for justice and unity.

I am also proud of the tribal philosophy of my religion and beliefs because that's what makes me who I am, it reminds me that I do come from a particular country with a particular belief system and background that forms my cultural identity.
The best thing that makes me proud of my ethnicity is that I am passing all these things to my kids and teaching them how awesome it is to be Australian Lebanese.

Hayfa

Oh wow - this thread is so lovely! Puts a smile on my face.

I'm a Lebanese migrant and also very proud of the food! I'm also proud of the pretty places there up in the mountains in the North where I'm from. Not many people are familiar with it so it's a hidden gem. It snows in the winter - the country looks absolutely beautiful in white - and in summer, the community brims with holiday joy, restaurants open 24/7 and everyone celebrates the summer holiday.

It's great!

Josette

This thread is so wonderful! Thank you Bluesky for starting it!

I'm Australian born with a Lebanese background and echo Josette's sentiments. Along with the gorgeous and underrated gem the country is, the celebratory and resilient culture is something I take a great deal of pride in.

It took my adult years to be able to take pride in my heritage after growing up adamantly expressing being Australian first and foremost and having to prove that constantly. It left me with a sense of shame around my background and then a detachment and lack of belonging within my own community and even my migrant parents. I think it's so important to acknowledge every thread in the fabric that makes us, and our heritage is a mighty important thread!

Hi Everyone,

Well this a great topic so thank you bluesky for starting the thread.

What I love about my ethnicity is how multicultural it is my father being Italian and my grandparents migrating from Italy the journey is such an amazing story with so much love and passion and strength which is carried on through our families I love the food as bad as it is for you lol.

I love the traditions the homemade cooking the pastries the pastas the pizza and my nonna's homemade sauces.

Where as my mother's side are Anglo Indian who migrated here as well even though both nationalities are so far apart with so many different Dynamics it is yet very similar in tradition and how the families grow together and keep family close. Also to have an abundance of food :-)

My sister and I were born here in Australia and it is the greatest country in the world and I love all our traditions and all the beautiful qualities Australia has to offer so I love having the combination of all three combined which makes me feel very blessed to be alive and to be able to experience all these beautiful gifts.

I've always taken a lot of Pride in my heritage. And I always enjoy increasing my knowledge on my background and where it originated.

Once again what a great thread,and i look forward to reading everyones..

Thank you 😀

Robbie

Hi Bluesky,

Thanks for the post. Much respect your parents for working hard to provide and establishing their place in a foreign country! It is truly admirable. I am also very glad that you are proud of your culture. Every culture out there is built on the effort of maintenance, history and achievements by our ancestors so it is something to be proud of.

I also love chinese food!!

-op1996

What a great topic for discussion especially if seen under the mental health lens and the way mental illness is perceived in various ethnic groups. Of course we all have things that make us feel proud about our ethnicity despite the fact that no one chooses where to be born, the language that they are taught from infants or the religion and traditions that are passed on to them. Food, music, art, history, philosophy, etc are all things we cherish about our backgrounds and things we bring into our new multicultural setting we call home. We all have common experiences through migration, settlement and integration into the Australian society even if it has happened in different eras for various groups which bind us as a nation. And even though they are things in each person's cultural heritage that make them proud, I find it more exciting to dwell on the things that make me proud to be an Australian citizen. You see, after thirty years since my naturalization, I embrace, respect and feel a deep sense of pride about this land that I have chosen to be my home because it has provided us with endless opportunities for growth, education, employment, financial independence, health and welfare supports and systems and structures that ensure that as citizens of this nation we all have a chance to have a fair go, and reach our maximum potential in whatever we choose to pursue in our lives. This is something that makes me feel very proud as I know that I and my family wouldn't have this quality of life and care and reap the benefits of such systems if we still lived in our country of origin. Another aspect that makes me feel very proud about living in Australia is the fact that despite 46% of our population having at least one parent born overseas in more than 200 countries, representing more than 135 religions and faiths, we all live peacefully alongside each other sharing our cultural heritage and enriching the diversity of this land. Moving from multiculturalism to intercultural-ism where each cultural group supports and learns from each other and shares/works together to develop further this great nation of ours is finally, something that makes me feel utterly proud to be an Australian. I find this sense of pride to be invaluable as I have been actively contributing to it and developing with it thus providing me with a sense of ownership as a citizen of a country that has embraced me and welcomed me with open arms. I feel proud to having had this opportunity. :)

So I saw this post and I thought it might be a good one to respond to as I feel like there may be others who can relate, especially as it is of so much turmoil for me.

My ancestry is Indian, but I consider myself anything but. I am a 2nd generation Zimbabwean, who was brought up with a good mixture of my religion and social and cultural values. I consider myself quite modern and open minded. My last relationship was with a white non-muslim and I couldn't have been happier, so it hurt when that ended. I feel like having one culture to define me is a bit hard.

There are things in my Indian culture that I am grateful for, but I am not Indian at all. I am often considered 'the white boy' in my family. I have a lot of African/Zimbabwean things I would never trade for, or things from ancestry, but also like a lot of the things that Australian society has taught me. I don't think I could be proud of something, but I can definitely be grateful of it. I am grateful that I was born and grew up in Zimbabwe. I am grateful for the sacrifice my parents made in moving here. I am grateful for the things that define me (music tastes, dress sense, tv shows etc) I am grateful for some of the food and lifestyle ideas that come from Indian culture or Zimbabwean culture. I am grateful for...

I've experienced being judged and defined by my skin colour, or my religion, but I can guarantee that none of that could be further from the truth. Culture is something that can often define us, but I think it should be more about accepting them for ourselves, but not letting that dictate us or how we are around other people. I know for a fact there are certain cultures that we do not agree with, but that does not mean we have to engage with it, we can just acknowledge them.

I don't really know if this post makes sense, hopefully it does.

Thank you Zimbos05, I can relate to what you say like many others do too. Culture is such an individual thing as we all identify with various aspects of society and pick elements that we can relate with and we understand from our own unique experience. It really varies how much each partakes and involves themselves within the culture that represents us and we are our only benchmark. Culture, like language and faith keeps evolving together with the people who live by it and in it. We create it and is there to serve us. There are no two people of the same culture who are identical with each other no matter how many common things they may share. To put it very plainly, it's like a bag of oranges, a bag of lemons, a bag of grapefruits etc. Let's say the oranges represent one cultural group, the lemons another, the grapefruit another etc. We can clearly see the difference between these, however, if look closely, no orange is identical, no lemon is the same, no grapefruit looks exactly like the rest in the bag...simplistic analogy I know, but I think it helps us visualize diversity within diversity...