Reflective Writing
Reflecting back to the process of
developing my photo board. Not only has it extended my awareness but also my
understanding primarily on the four key concepts. With many examples and
readings given during lectures and tutorials throughout the weeks in this paper.
These also helped me with my selection of photos portraying my own personal
culture, identity, human rights perspective and historical infrastructure
within society today.
The photos I planned to use for my
personal culture became limited as the due date of the assignment was closer. At
the end I used the photo quoting “No matter how far you go in life, never
forget where you came from. You can’t change who you are”. This image related
more to my actual thought on my personal culture than my own photos. Being the
proud Samoan I am growing up and living in New Zealand. I've always seen the
difference between the Samoan and New Zealand culture. The way they look at
life, dress codes and more was different to the Samoan way. However, according
to Ryan (2010) the word culture can be everything from the way we eat, dress,
how we speak and think is culture. This helped me understand that culture is
not defined as just one thing and everyone’s idea is different.
My identity was the easiest concept
for me to work on which is my religion as a Christian. This is what I identify
myself as. The photo used shows me and other church members during an altar
call in church. Lawler (2008) states that Identity is a difficult term to
define and therefore proposes it’s the sameness and difference of each
individual. I myself may have the same identity as others as in our religion
but also at the same time have different thoughts and aspects on others, and
what they identify themselves as.
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (n.d.) indicates that in Article 4. That no one should be held in
slavery and Article 3. Everyone has the right to life and liberty. My human rights perception on society was
based around slavery but more on child slavery. The photo I used to portray
this shows that slavery is still happening even with rights in place, people
held in slavery are still unaware of their rights.
Developing my perspective on an
historical infrastructure was difficult as my knowledge on historical events wasn't enough though I knew about most. I used the signing of The Treaty of
Waitangi as my photo. This portrays the historical event for New Zealand and
also an important one which has impacted the way New Zealand is today as a nation
who own most of their lands.
Sharing my ideas with others and
also reading theirs has influenced my thoughts on each of my own concepts. I've
been able to see and feel how others ideas on these very concepts are different
but all connect with each other in most ways even when we don’t see it.
References:
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity sociological perspective.
Cambridge, UK: Malden, Mass.: Polity Press.
Ryan, M. (2010). Cultural studies: A practical
introduction. New Jersey, NY: Wiley-Blackwell
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (n.d.). Article 3-4. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a1
