Navigating Cultural Spaces: Revisiting models of acculturation BRCSS Conference 2009 8 February...

Navigating Cultural Spaces: Revisiting models of acculturation

BRCSS Conference 2009

3 May 2023 Shoba Nayar

Overview of Presentation

• Setting the scene– Models of acculturation

• Overview of study• Revising models of acculturation

– Navigating Cultural Spaces• Advantages


Models of Acculturation

• Do not easily account for interaction between more than two cultures

• Categorises migrants into particular modes of acculturation– Loses dynamic nature of the settlement process


The Research

• The research question: “How do Indian migrant women engage in occupations when settling in New Zealand?”

• Meaning of occupation• Participants• Grounded theory methodology


Navigating Cultural Spaces


NAVIGATING

CULTURAL

SPACES

The Perspectives

• Working with Indian Ways• Working with New Zealand Ways• Working with the Best of Both Worlds

• Provide a stability to the process of Navigating Cultural Spaces


Case Study

It’s easier to mix with the Māoris and Samoans and Tongans and Cook Islands then mixing with the Kiwis and the Britishers and the white people. I think it is cultural because they have the same cultural and traditional values as we have….

Shoba Nayar3 May 2023

Cont…

I had some close friends, Kiwi friends, and I just came and we were not used to this thing about partners and flatting at the age of 15, 16. And I remember these Kiwi friends, ladies working with me at the supermarket saying, ‘My god, I’m just waiting for my daughter to turn 18.’ I said, ‘Why?’ ‘So she can leave and go.’ I said, ‘My god, we don’t want our daughters to leave, even after they’re married.’ (Jean)


Key Ideas

• Cultural differences– Western/Eastern perspectives

• Ability to experience 2+ modes of acculturation

• 3+ cultures


Case Study

It’s balancing that Indianness now, where you want to push your child and you feel that okay I don’t want my child, like no matter how balanced I try to be I’m still a mum who’ll absolutely whip my daughter if she’s going to be with a partner, who is not married to him and living with him under one roof. I mean I don’t care if any Kiwi or any Indian Kiwi or any Fijian Kiwi tells me that I’m being a conservative bitch, but I just do not believe my daughter’s body is a commodity for any guy who she perceives as fit at that point in time, to be played with. So that’s how I feel at this stage….


Cont…

I don’t know how I’m going to feel at, when she’s 20 or 30…, but this is the way I feel, it’s the one thing that has stayed intact with me. I’ve changed everything about myself, to some extent. I’ve changed the way I dressed, I’ve changed the way I speak, my accent has changed, the words and the content of what I speak has changed, my outlook has changed, my skills have changed, everything has changed. But the core of what I am when I came here, the values that are what’s brought in the Catholic environment are still there. (Nina)


Key Ideas

• Visibility/Invisibility– Public/Private spaces

• Time– Immediacy vs. Long Term


Advantages of Revisiting Models of Acculturation

• Allows for the constant change and development that occurs in both people and places and associated meanings

• Prospect of reducing some of the ‘negative connotations’ or criticisms that go along with categorising migrants into one particular mode of acculturation

• Acknowledges the act of settling in a new country as an ongoing process


Acknowledgements

• BRCSS– Doctoral Completion Award

• AUT University– Faculty of Health and Environmental

Sciences Doctoral Scholarship• Supervisors

– Associate Professors Clare Hocking and Lynne Giddings


Contact Details

• Shoba Nayar, Doctoral CandidateDepartment of Occupational Science and TherapySchool Of Rehabilitation & Occupation StudiesFaculty of Health & Environmental ScienceAuckland University of TechnologyPrivate Bag 92006, Auckland 1020

Phone: 09 921 9999 ext. 7304

Email: [email protected]


Navigating Cultural Spaces: Revisiting models of acculturation BRCSS Conference 2009 8 February...

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