bolognese, and marinated chicken wings, while
I
Dad is famous for his tuna salad, and loves his
although some people seem to identify me as
BBQ. Occasionally when he feels like it he?ll
being Asian, perhaps because my stronger facial
make what he calls a jungle curry, or a jungle
features are Asian. I am extremely proud of my
soup, the recipe for which pretty much calls for
father?s culture, and proud to be a Karen girl, but
putting everything you have in the fridge in a big
it is not the whole story of who I am.
pot and cooking it up.
M
M
during my childhood and were a constant feature,
Musically, the early influences in my life
I identify myself as being Australian,
My Scottish grandparents were still alive
come from my Dad with his love of the blues,
so the connection to Scotland seemed quite
jazz, Elvis and the old crooners – Frank Sinatra,
tangible. We visited Scotland while we were
Dean Martin. While Burma is predominately
living in England for a time, and I met many of
Buddhist and Scotland is Christian, my own
my older relatives… I was told by one of my great
spiritual education leans more towards Shakti
uncles that he had to go hunt the haggis, and that
Gawain?s Creative Visualisaton and Louise Hay?s
haggis had legs of different lengths so they could
philosophies, rather than Buddhism or
run on the moors. I am still quietly suspicious of
Christianity – again from my father?s influence.
this.
O
On the other hand, my Burmese grandparents
passed away before I was born, and we lived
away from the Karen community in Sydney, so
my early understanding of my father?s country
and culture was from stories. There is the story of
when his father took him into the jungle and they
found the perfect guava fruit; the story about my
grandmother, and how I look like her; the story of
riding on the water buffalo. While I was made
aware that my father never went back because of
the military dictatorship, Burma seemed like a
fantastical place.
W
We finally visited Burma in 1998, and my
brother and I met our cousins and our uncle who
has since passed away. It is such a beautiful
country, with such diverse landscape, but of
course we were only really able to visit the tourist
areas. There was a distinct military presence, and
military propaganda was often visible. The
universities were shut down at the time by the
Tasneem in Heartbreak High
government, but children of our parents? friends