What makes me a man?
What makes me British?
What are the connecting features that help me identify with these ‘groupings’? Or, put slightly differently, what factors make up my identity? Our genes, yes, but that is only part of the picture. What else influences who we are?
It’s a tricky question. It’s not something we think about very often, but yet it’s a very important one. Often without realising it we find that who we are, what we think, what we value, how we choose to act, is shaped by and connected to the circumstances that surround us. Things that we can easily take for granted.
STOP for a minute and have a little think: What makes you who you are?
At one of our community of practice events last year we asked participants that very question: What makes you part of your ethnolinguistic group? These were some of the responses:
And so what? Why does this matter? Well, what would happen if those factors were suddenly no longer around? What if you couldn’t live in a certain place, eat a certain food, wear certain clothes, speak a certain language? Would you still feel connected to others who have similar features? Would you still be you?
These are the kinds of questions many marginalised communities around the world are having to face right now. Key elements that make up who they are are being challenged, looked down upon, outlawed and even destroyed. Their traditional ways of celebrating, their traditional foods, the language they speak, and often the very land they live on is changing and they must decide how to respond.
At its heart, this is what we are working to support. To help communities who have been looked down upon and devalued, to define their own identity and to be proud of it. To see who they are, who they were made to be, and to freely live in those realities. It’s a complicated issue, with many factors, but one that is central to many other areas of life.
Will you join with us and stand alongside these marginalised communities? We do not receive a salary for the work we do and our income is dependent on the goodwill of friends around the world. If you would like to support us either regularly or by making a one off gift, you can do so now by clicking here.