My first photo shows two girls presenting a fine mat, ie toga n Samoan, i chose this photo to portray my personal culture. As a New Zealand born Samoan, I was not brought up in the traditional samoan culture, however, not being raised in Samoa but visiting the homeland, allowed me to experience the Samoan culture, the way things are done in the Samoan culture. Therefore, I decided to learn and try and adapt to the Samoan culture however with a mix of New Zealand, although I am not a fluent speaker, I am enriched by the knowledge of my culture through the teachings of my elders. Culture is the software of our lives. It is the program we live by, the rules that determine how we think and act. (Ryan, 2010).
"Identity" is a difficult term, more or less everyone knows more or less of what it means.. ( Lawler, 2008). Identity was one of the pictures that I struggled with as I was not too sure how put my identity in one photo. Identity allowed me to look back on my life and who I am as a person and reflect on what makes my identity. Growing up I was always asked by my peers why I was brown skinned yet my last name was English, i was never able to answer that question, until my grandparents told me of my history. This is one story that I will always remember because it tells me of who I am and where I come from, hence why I related my identity to the image of my grandparents headstone, because even though they have passed, they will always remain as part of my identity like my last name.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 25 states the right to adequate living standards. This means every person has the right to a good life, everyone should be entitled to food, clothes and shelter. I chose the picture as a view on human rights perspective to show that human rights do not apply to everyone. I feel that myself as a person meet the criterias on the universale declaration on human rights-article25, however we tend to turn a blind eye on those that are less fortunate. Therefore I chose the image to show my personal perspective of human rights in society today.
A person I found that is a historical influence in today's society would be Malala Yousafzai. In society today, there is not much news about youth in today's society standing up for rights especially women nowadays, however Yousafzai was only 12 when she started fighting for her rights as a woman to be educated. As a woman, it is easy to understand where Yousafzai is coming from, however unlike New Zealand, women can be educated here and are free to do whereas for Yousafzai, it was forbidden by the Taliban military. Her fight for education inspires me as a woman to strive for the best in my education and how powerful education can be in today's society. I admire her courage and therefore find her to an a historical influence in today's society.
This assignment has allowed me to expand my thoughts about human rights in society today as it is not something I tend to think about everyday and it may be something that is taken for granted because of , however this assignment has helped a lot with my views on this as well as viewing other peoples posts on their perspectives on these four topics. Overall, the photo board assignment has also allowed me to think deeply about my culture and identity, as well as viewing other peoples views on culture and their identity and seeing how different their views are compared to mine but should also be valued and respected.
References
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity. Sociological Perspectives
Ryan, M. (2010). Cultural studies: A practical introduction. Wiley, Hoboken, ISBN9781444320657
Claiming human rights. (n,d). Retrieved from http://www.claiminghumanrights.org/udhr_article_25.html#at27
