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As a child I was always told that I excelled with a pen in hand. That is who I am, a writer with a pen and pad. One of many attributes that helped to shape my personal identity. But what about the real ‘identity’ I posses?
This is New Zealand, an adoptive mother who has taken many people in, yet allowed them to keep the identities they possessed in their old pastures. We’ve experienced poverty, war, genocide and political persecution. But I often wonder how we have as migrants shaped New Zealand’s identity? And how have we ourselves been shaped by the Land of the long white cloud?

Most of us arrived in the 90s (Apart from the original immigrants from Britain in the 19th century). The majority of us have a fair idea of our cultural background, however we still rely on our parents to reflect our cultural identity, provided they are willing to share their expertise.

These particular expertise have been used by parents in extremes that have worked differently for either set. Some parent’s choose to deprive their kids from their original backgrounds sighting a new start in a new land means a new way of living culturally. Other parent’s completely nullify that, choosing to bring up their children in the same way they would have raised them back in their home country. And of course there will be those who will be in the grey, choosing to implement both methods with their children’s upbringing.

We should always take in New Zealand’s culture and values yet at the same time not have our culture over-ridden. The question is how. Do we take in New Zealand identity and completely forget about the cultures of our parents and grand parents? Or simply live on as complete New Zealanders with no sense of our past ancestors or backgrounds?

Interestingly this decision lies in our hands. We don’t have to worry about someone else having to decide for us. Having seen both extremes of the story, I must say that either way doesn’t work.

The choice is ours but who are we if we forget where we came from? If we forgot our ancestors and the practices they were involved in? Are we doing them justice?

We have been encouraged to embrace New Zealand culture and be a “kiwi” in the process. Where does the word ‘African, Arab, or middle eastern’ come in relation to kiwi. They seem so far fetched and to a certain extent un-heard of.

Having come in the 90s and barely having established a full generation of people, we as the ‘latter’ immigrants face a ‘transitional’ period so to speak. Some communities of Indian and Chinese Immigrants have settled in New Zealand for a generation or two and hence feel confident to refer to themselves as ‘Indian-Kiwis’ or ‘Chinese Kiwis.’ The original immigrants of those two examples had to go through the ‘Transitional phase’ and have come out with grandchildren that still bear if not all but some of the identity they brought with them from Asia. As the old English writer John Heywood said “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and neither will an identity of an ‘Afro-Kiwi’ or an ‘Arab-Kiwi.’