Keeping Your Identity Only When it's Aussie Okay by Lillian Abbew

So it is sometimes not Aussie Okay to keep your cultural identity? For migrants like me this settling in experience was quite disappointing. During my first few months after arriving in Australia, it was like I was the appointed fashion ambassador of my country Ghana, "Hey there look at me! I am a true African from the Western Coast. Come see our many colors in kente, batik, wax prints tie-dye, check out our kaba and slits, the patakari... oh just feel the fashion "

It seemed good during the first few months after my arrival in Melbourne. I enjoyed all the attention from the Australian community. Australians were fascinated by my colorful Ghanaian Kente dresses and I took the opportunity to explain its origins and use in my country. But then came the time to go job haunting in my new country.

"Wow, if Aussies like the colours then I'll be a winner in the job market as well" So on my first job interview, I set my colorful kente blouse on top of black pants. As I walked into the reception, I was welcomed by the gleeful face of the lady behind the desk. Hers was a dark gray skirt suit, not doing too much to brighten up the atmosphere in the gloomy winter morning. But well, since I was there to do just that, it wasn't a problem. At last the company had finally found a lady who knew all about the right colours for special effects. I was there to make it happen then.

As a sales representative for the JB Aussie Marketing Group I was going to win more customers with my vibrant colours. Customers will just fall for it. They will bless the day they added me to their sales team.

The panel were impressed with my past job experiences in Ghana. Not that I had done sales and marketing before but my other related study and work experience gave me great potential for the position. They liked my accent and fluency in English language. They asked a lot of questions about how I was settling in, then about my work life in Ghana, our economy and ... how much of my background I was willing to sacrifice if that was all I had to do in order to realise my Australian Dream. "Oh!" I blurted without thinking – since I had rehearsed these lines well – "I like Australia so much and will work very hard to realise my dreams. But I love my culture and I am proud of my culture and will very much keep my national identity". "How do you hope to do this?" the stern looking guy in the black suit asked calmly. "As a Ghanaian and an African, it is important to keep my colorful national costume so that other Australians will know more about my culture." I replied with so much contentment and from the grin on their faces, I knew I got the catch line perfectly.

All of a sudden it felt awkward and the atmosphere seemed to change. It was as if the picture of that popular Aussie Icon Uluru had come crashing down from the wall and my internal organs shook within my body.

Two weeks past and I heard nothing from JB Aussie Marketing Group. Then a letter with their logo was dropped into my mail box one early morning. I worked my fingers through the envelope quickly and pulled out the letter.

Well three years had past since that first experience at job hunting in Australia. Without doubt my integrating process was improving. On the 22 of September 2006, I stood out bold and proud among arts exhibits of the 2006 Material House Exhibition. About 200 pairs of eyes were fixed on me – on the same colorful kente blouse and sleek dark shaded pants I wore some three years ago. This was at the Melbourne Arts festival at the Federation square. This was, alas, its rightful place – arts, culture, colours and cultural exhibits.

As I finished presenting my speech and the audience broke into a long applause I walked slowly to take my back stage position. Then almost by impulse, I looked up and came face to face with piece of a paper that will remain an icon of my migration history for my generations to come...

"...we were impressed by your knowledge of culture and other world issues. You are certainly a great ambassador to your country Ghana and will do well in a lot of multicultural settings here in Australia. Un fortunately, our goals and aspirations do not seem to fit into your zest and pride of culture. Hopefully if our company's goals change, we will consider you for a position... All the best..."