I enjoyed this photo board assignment quite a lot. It was
fun seeing everyone’s opinions and comparing them to mine.
Lawler (2008), looks at identity as being ‘who I am’, and as
such, I chose to use a picture of my family to represent this. It is my family
whose beliefs and values raised me, and though I may not now follow those same
beliefs, they are what made me who I am today. As a Maori family, and really into
whanau, my family has always been there, always been very close to me. I know I
would be a different person if I hadn’t had such a close connection with them,
especially with my cousins, seeing as I’m the youngest. I was always the one
protected and cherished, coddled if you will, and so whatever identity I carved
out for myself, was whatever they allowed me to be.
According to Ryan (2010), culture is a part of our everyday
lives, it is something we practice subconsciously. My culture is the mixing of
Pakeha and Maori, and I show it every day that I sing Maori songs with my dad, and
greet people in English or Maori. I show it in the way I respect my elders, and
in the way that I dress. I show it in the way that I mix Maori and English together
when I speak. And the picture I chose conveys the mixing of these two
ethnicities perfectly.
Article 25 of the Declaration of Human Rights says that
everyone has the right to medical care and an adequate standard of living. Except,
if this was true there would not continue to be stigma around mental illness. The
pictures I chose show part of the struggle those who self-harm face, the
knowledge that there has to be more
to life than self-harming, but never being able to see it, along with the idea
that the only person who can save you, is you. When you’re dying of cancer, no
one comes and sits beside your hospital bed and tells you ‘just get up, stop
complaining, life isn’t fair’ and that you deserve to die for not keeping
yourself from self-destructing. That’s what cancer is. It’s your body
destroying itself, and depression is the cancer of the soul. The only person
you can look to for support is yourself, and it shouldn’t have to be that way.
Because if the only person fighting for you, is you, and no one hates you more
than you do, well, it’s a miracle if you survive.
People always look at Historical Influences as being heroes.
As being the people who saved the day, or took a stand. But that’s not all
historical influences are. Historical influences are people who made a
difference, whether it was a good difference or a bad one. They inspired
change. And that is why I chose the picture of the Nazi symbol, since Hitler
and his Nazi regime caused so much chaos and destruction, but they also brought
about the motivation for the Declaration of Human Rights, and for the formation
of the UN. The Nazi experiments also brought about the Nuremburg code of
ethics, which was the foundation for the current ethical codes used today.
References:
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity:
Sociological perspectives. Malden, MA.
Ryan, M. (2010). Cultural
studies: A practical introduction. New Jersey, NY.
United Nations. (n.d). The Declaration of Human Rights.
Retrieved 7th April. From: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
