Individual essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Individual - Essay Example In this argument, I will use the example of Aboriginal children taken away from their â€Å"country† and how it impacted them as individuals and their culture. I will also argue that free will in choosing one’s cultural identity is under the influence of many factors. One’s cultural identity raises some interesting sets concerning the choice, for instance, how one defines his/her cultural identity and whether these definitions are imposed or chosen. Stuart hall discusses colonial experience and its traumatic nature by suggesting that expropriation of culture deforms and cripples that races that have been colonized are subjected to domination and will that is imposed through subjective conformation and compulsion to the norm (Hall 218). These people are projected unfairly as â€Å"others†, which means that cultural identity is a positioning rather than essence. Hundreds of children of Aboriginal were uprooted from their families in Australia and brought up away from their natural environment. They then became what were referred to as a stolen generation. One member of this generation who was adopted at 13 into a non-indigenous family and claims that he went through a crisis of identity. His identity was whom he was and where he was f rom, claiming that he and his Aboriginal wife were attempting to break a cycle of shattered families (Hall 220). He contended that they would make sure they stuck together and raise their children know their heritage. The other Aborigines were products of imposed interracial marriage whose children spent their lives attempting to fit since they were not white or black enough (Hall 222). This highlights the uniqueness of the situation that multi or bi-cultural live in. This situation does not make it any less valid than an identity that is fixed. Another example is the Australian cultural studies teacher and author Ien Ang who was born to a Chinese family in Indonesia and studied in Holland