Before we moved to Sydney in 2008, I spent a considerable amount of time wondering about what shape "diversity" would take in our lives here. I wrote about it here, and I still think the questions I had from that side of the move are valid.
Our daily life turns out to be incredibly diverse, and I gave an example of that in this post. I wrote about one of my only negative experiences with a school here. Incidentely, that post was one of the only things I've written that someone really got upset over. Odd.
Five years in I think I can feel the nuances of issues surrounding race, ethnicity, and culture more than I could in the beginning. To oversimplify, I would say that in middle-class suburban Sydney, race doesn't matter. Culture is celebrated, and ethnicity is a non-issue.
In America I feel like there is pressure for immigrants to surrender their cultural identity, or at least water it down significantly, in order to assimilate into American culture. Here it feels like maintaining cultural duality is encouraged (like my girlfriend who had an arranged marriage, and goes to all sorts of Sri Lankan balls and festivals, but is Aussie to her core).
I've had a few experiences lately that I thought might illustrate how being part of a diverse community can take work, and we become responsible for living together or pulling apart.
I am currently attending a group speech therapy program with B. The class is held at a community health center in Sydney's "most culturally diverse suburb". On the first day I noticed that I was the only anglo (white) parent attending. No biggie. English fluency was more of an issue. When we went around the room to share our reasons for attending, I had to really focus to understand the parents around me.
After a couple minutes I started to feel slightly annoyed that people kept talking while each person introduced themselves. "How rude", I thought. The talking didn't stop and it really started to bug me. To me, talking while others have the floor is really distracting and shows poor manners. After a bit longer I realized what all the talking was. Most of the parents in attendence had a translator talking in their ear, helping them understand things they weren't catching. Right then I had an opportunity to stop being annoyed and instead be thankful that there was access to translators for the families that needed them. How great is that? Still, each week, I have to be okay with the chatter that would otherwise irritate and distract me.
Another setting that continues to be an opportunity to be inclusive is school. Our school is very diverse. You can't tell by sight who speaks fluent english and who does not. While I have made some excellent friends at school, there are plenty of people I am friendly with, but where I have not pursued building a friendship because of a language barrier. It can be challenging to stop and chat with someone when you're not sure how much they understand of what you are saying, and the conversation topics are limited. Language really can play such a major role in the ability to connect, and I have to make a choice to engage with acquaintances where the conversation does not flow easily.
I have so loved living in Sydney in our circle of friends, where I am often in the minority, or where no two people in a group come from a shared cultural background. Sydney's inner west is so wonderful in that way. I like this climate of diversity where culture is celebrated, and yet race and ethnicity do not limit or define you. Most of the time things run incredibly smoothly, and sometimes I get to choose to do a tiny amount of work to maintain Sydney's strong welcoming spirit.
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