Black History Month
Odeth Richardson contextualises the theme of occupational engagement , through reflection on her life and her mother ’ s daily messages of advice and guidance .
Black History Month
Feature
Towards a Caribbean perspective of occupational engagement
Odeth Richardson contextualises the theme of occupational engagement , through reflection on her life and her mother ’ s daily messages of advice and guidance .
Above : Caribbean life .
G
rowing up in Jamaica you are taught to expect hardships in life . My parents were from the less affluent side of the island and had to eke out a
Odeth Richardson living with subsistence farming . My dad was a versatile farmer . He owned livestock such as cows , goats and pigs . He grew a wide range of vegetables . The lowly callaloo plant was grown and harvested and was sold at market to pay for our education .
My parents firmly believed that a good education was essential to lift us out of poverty and so each of us were given the education as a foundation . My mother ’ s daily messages of advice and guidance helped me to reflect about the manifestation and origins of occupational engagement applied to me as a Jamaican .
From a young age all children are taught that life won ’ t be easy . In the UK , the prevailing message we give to our children is that you will have to work twice as hard as those around you . You will be exposed to very difficult and challenging situations , but you cannot allow those to stop you from reaching your goals .
You will have to keep moving forward despite the struggles . This mantra has been handed down from the older generations who really struggled when they came to ‘ The Motherland ’, as the UK was called . Their experience shaped their expectations as they sought to prepare their children for life in the UK .
The concept of occupational engagement has been explored by a number of authors within occupational therapy . Black et al ( 2019 ) argue that definitions were inconsistent across the profession , but that there were key themes , which included developing identity through occupation , social and environmental interactions . This theme is being contextualised through this article .
Proverbs as signifiers of occupational engagement
The Dictionary of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy defines occupational
14 OTnews October 2023