Using the tabs above (Extracts A – D), read the four extracts on the theme of belonging. Then answer the questions opposite.
Extract A
Do you give much thought to whether you are an “includer” by nature – or not? This is something we can easily fail to develop in ourselves and may not value or develop in our children. Yet the capacity and willingness to think about others and include them makes a profound difference for people of all ages. It could be a child at pre-school who is willing to share, an adult at a party who keeps an eye out for anyone standing on their own, or a colleague who will take the time to show a newcomer around the workplace. In so many situations a moment of generosity and thoughtfulness can make all the difference between someone feeling like an outsider, with all the agonies that can produce, and feeling included.
The image of a child standing alone in a crowded playground, without the protection of company and friends, haunts many adults. Feeling included is vital for our emotional health and wellbeing and it will affect dramatically how we think about other people as well as ourselves. Because most of us underestimate our own personal power and overestimate other people’s, we are likely to spend far more time worrying about being left out rather than whether and how we are including others.
Using the tabs above (Extracts A – D), read the four extracts on the theme of belonging. Then answer the questions opposite.
Extract B
A sense of place is one of the most important pillars of our psyche, providing the base from which we grow and develop. My own sense of place is profoundly linked with the area I grew up in, the Grampians¹. Right now it is one of my favourite times of the year there—the depths of winter—and I have spent the last three weekends in its green and brown embrace. Granted, trekking through a damp forest is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’ve had the tracks largely to myself. It's been cold and sometimes wet, but also glorious.
When things go wrong here it makes me angry. I don't like it when great strips of land are bulldozed to protect private property from fires, and I don't like the many fire tracks that criss-cross the landscape and break up the wilderness— the legacy of a different era. I hate the rubbish people sometimes leave behind. It makes me angry because I feel a strong sense of belonging to the Grampians, this beautiful strip of mountains on a shimmering Wimmera plain, home of so many happy memories from the weekends and years spent amongst its rocky places.
¹ The traditional, Aboriginal name for the Grampians is Gariwerd.
Using the tabs above (Extracts A – D), read the four extracts on the theme of belonging. Then answer the questions opposite.
Extract C
Think of a favourite lullaby or children’s song passed down through the generations, or of crowds listening to the national anthem at a baseball game. Music is one way of communicating belonging, which may increase your sense of safety and obligation toward your group. When we discover that someone likes a piece of music that we like, we tend to think better of them—as if musical preference had a deeper meaning than just entertainment. Music also influences how we think others will get along. In one recent study, participants listened to music or to silence while they watched videos in which three people were seen walking either in step or out of step with one another. The participants who listened to music reported seeing a greater sense of unity among the walkers than those participants who didn’t listen to music. This suggests that music somehow enhances our view of social cohesion among people, perhaps through mistaking our own feelings for those of the people we observe.
Using the tabs above (Extracts A – D), read the four extracts on the theme of belonging. Then answer the questions opposite.
Extract D
I get my Larrakia and Tiwi blood from my mother. My mum was, and still is, a staunch Aboriginal woman who loved her family fiercely. I get my predominantly Irish Roman Catholic heritage from my father. Dad is extremely affectionate and has a very good sense of humour, even if his jokes can be stereotypically Dad-like. At home I’ve never had to choose between my mother’s Aboriginality or my father’s European ancestry. My background doesn’t dilute my lived experience or diminish my identity.
They say it takes a village to raise a child and that was certainly my experience. My grandparents, uncles and aunties always stepped in to babysit when my parents needed them to. My mother would take me out to protest meetings, the Larrakia having one of the longest ongoing land claims in Australia. Larrakia country covers most of the Darwin region. Many of the pictures of me as a baby were taken on a tarpaulin or a swag out bush when my family were camping or fishing.