Dear John,

The weather has cleared since my last letter. We have got out to see a lot of the area that Mum and Dad grew up in. Lots of their old stories make a lot more sense now.

But I tell you what has hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks — and that’s the difference between Mum and Aunt Helen. And it really makes me wonder about home and the influence of environment on people.

You remember how Mum always goes on about how she and Helen were like twins and not just sisters — same taste, same personality, same likes and dislikes, and so on. I expected to meet another mum when I met Aunt Helen. Well did I get a surprise!

Aunt Helen is a really closed-in, and I think really intolerant person. The old town is a really homogeneous society — a really strong little community born of hardship and struggle. The people all live in the same houses for generations, know the same people, go to the same places, think the same thoughts. There are a lot of 'newcomers' — Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis — but they are segregated into pockets of their own living areas. Helen really mistrusts the newcomers and while there are a number of ethnic restaurants, she would never dream of going to one as this would be seen as encouraging the newcomers to stay! The newcomers have built a mosque in the town — NOT a welcome step with the old locals. Helen goes on holidays, but only within England and Wales.

Now you think about Mum. The same family, same upbringing, same schooling, same values, same friends and family and environment — until she went to Australia in '56, and then not very willingly, just did it for Dad. Remember her stories of how she lost family contact and support and lost that sense of really close community. But living in Collingwood in the Milk Bar, she still mixed with and related well to a wide range of 'newcomers' to Australia — Maltese, Italians, Greeks, Dutch, and Germans. And she mixed well with the local Aussies.

Mum as you know has a broad view of life and is very accepting and tolerant of others. She is willing to eat at ethnic restaurants, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Indian. She is also willing to experiment with different foods in her own cooking.

So I look at Aunt Helen and wonder how did that happen? How much of these differences in attitude to other people arise from life experiences and how many are based on personality traits? Are we seeing living proof of the value of multiculturalism in a society — is the value of it more than just the dancing and food that I sometimes joke about? Does the diversity really expand people's views and change their attitudes? It looks like it might be!

Anyway, I'll keep tracking through our past and heritage, and see what else turns up during the remainder of the trip.

Love to all the family

Jo

Extract source: Australia 2030, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, 2003, page 72.

1. Identify a range of different values from this letter. (Values can be defined as the things people really believe in.)

2. Identify some examples where values have determined attitudes. (Attitudes can be defined as the reactions people have to something.)

3. Identify ways in which values have formed attitudes and resulted in actions.

4. What has shaped Helen’s responses to her society?

5. Would you call her racist? What other information might you need to answer this question with certainty?

6. What if Helen had emigrated instead of Mum and Dad — do you think she would now be the tolerant and multicultural one? Justify your answer.