by Mari-Anne Bonventi

Created on: May 14, 2008

Different is not a dirty word.

As the lyric goes...Ego is not a dirty word...but now is seems that being, living or thinking differently is. When did it happen? And where was I?

I have had the opportunity to experience living and working all over the world, thus getting a good diet of difference, be it - culture, cuisine, religion, values or terrain. In Australia we really identify with difference - I guess I have always seen Australians through very individual eyes, as a great deal of blood that courses through my veins is of the mixed varietal (hopefully like a good drop of red wine). But when you add a cup of Italian and a drizzle of french, with a dash of Scottish and a scoop of Irish and mix it with meat pies, rugby league, boomerangs, kangaroos, sun kissed beaches, blue water and ocher red dirt, it is a dish to remember!

I never really felt different from other children, that is until I realized every other kid could spell their entire name in the 3rd grade....so mine was long (very long) and not an Australian or British sounding one, so what? And I thought every family ate pasta, salami and olives all the time, that was until I started to have sleepovers at a friend's place at about 11 or 12 years of age....what was a sausage roll anyway? And did it come from the North or South of Italy?

We just lived the way we always lived, enjoying our extended family, giggling about our Grandmother's and Mother's obsession with a celebration known as "hog-many", thinking everyone's surname should end with a vowel and wondering about the colonial Sunday roast ritual. It wasn't until much later that I realized the difference and what it really meant. I believe I was really fortunate to have parents from very different worlds, who celebrated their individuality and cultures and taught my sister and I to appreciate and revel in ours.

I must admit where I live, it is rare to hear of anyone under 40 years of age that has not be influenced by America in some way, either it was Sesame Street (my childhood favorite)when they were toddlers, the Cosby Show, Friends, Seinfeld, movies or the Internet. If they haven't, they have been in a sect or lived their lives in a remote cloister. But that is not to say I believe we are losing our Australianess! Crikey that would be off!

Is society and those who drive our media expect us all to become global citizens in the worst possible way, by losing our identity and individually? I certainly don't see it happening in my house. We will still devour Japanese, Mexican, Italian, Texan, Thai and French dishes, dry our crockery with French tea towels, sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets, drive Japanese cars, cook with Chinese knives, celebrate any culture's holidays or festivals that take our fancy and generally enjoy being what and who we are...individuals. It will not stop us cooking up lamb on the Barby on Australia Day, or stopping everything to watch the Melbourne cup on the first Tuesday in November.

So have we lost our individuality, our ability to be different and be proud about it? No...I think if anything we are working towards being more tolerant of each other's differences and the way the world is shrinking each day, we now have greater access to other cultures and the rich mix of differences that evolve to make each of us who we are.

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