Why am I Here?

The Tiki symbol in Maori cultures is the symbol
fertility worn mostly by woman. I saw many of
these in my travels through New Zealand 

Reflecting on this article, I once again realize an 

undeniable set of privileges that I have as a white 

American. Most Australian citizens I have come 

into contact with and interacted with have these 

similar white privileges, living in a majority whose 

country caters to their well being. Because of this 

reason, I have not had an uncomfortable teaching 

moment having to do with white privilege and the 

boundary that gives for being a “global citizen.” 

However, when I first got the idea in my head to 

study abroad, I had romanticized ideas about what 

it would be like to study abroad similar to what Talya 

Zemach-Bersin talks about at the beginning of her essay.

First of all, I wanted to travel the world, to immerse 

myself in cultures very different from my own and in 

doing so find myself. I soon realized that my cultural 

experience would be very subtle and that the culture 

here is not dramatically different then the culture I am

used to at home.

I have however been in challenging and somewhat uncomfortable situations during my study abroad experience so far. I decided to travel by myself to New Zealand and meet up with a couple friends while I was over there. Because of timing and schedules, I realized I would be spending two days lone in New Zealand. I have always been the type of person who prefers experiencing things with others and have always slightly dreaded the idea of being alone. However, I realized in my travels that even though I was by myself, I was never alone. I meet so many interesting people at the two hostiles that I stayed at and even spent a half day exploring Rotorua with one of them. When you are by yourself, I found that you are a lot more aware of the kindness of those around you and the willingness they have to help you out. In particular, I met a woman while waiting in the cold rain at a bus stop. She insisted I go inside and let her buy me a cup of tea. I politely declined the offer at first but her insistent made me feel like it would be rude not to accept. So I found myself sitting inside a bus stop with this very kind woman somewhere in New Zealand sharing a cup of tea. It turns out that she belongs to a tribe of the Maori people. As I continued asking questions and continued showing interest in her culture, she continued to open up to me. She told me about how the job of her people is to protect their land, the mountains and the seas of New Zealand, how they listen to the land and don’t over fish or over hunt so as not to harm the ecosystem that they don’t own but are a part of. We both had an unspoken agreement that western white culture including my own had a lot of things very very backwards. I began to feel very guilty. I was a part of this western culture that had things backwards and yet the majority of the time failed to listen to the peoples of the land and instead used brute force and power to flush the culture of these peoples.

So in my travels through New Zealand, I put myself out there. Being alone, although sometimes stressful and a little scary, I was able to slow down, to listen and notice my surroundings and in doing to, I was able to listen to this woman and her culture. Being a white person, living in a world that caters to the white majority I realized that instead of stumbling blindly through life believing that it is my way or the highway, it is important to slow down and listen and realize that other cultures have an incredible amount to offer as well.