Belonging
Jenny Limmage
‘Sugar-n-Spice’ 2007
The ‘self’ is affected by others and in particular those closest to us. I believe a strong sense of self enables a strong sense of belonging and is achieved by participation in culture/s. I receive the strongest sense of belonging from my family culture; from being a part of the Limmage family. To define one’s self and how/where one belongs one might ask what is my ‘part’ in the story? Gaining a sense of self and of belonging is at the same time enabled by place; by where the story or the adventure happens.
A clear definition, of whom one is, of one’s peculiarity and uniqueness, leads to a recognition of ‘how/where one fits’. This usually, and in my case, happens quite instinctively within the family where one is born into a kinship with siblings and parents. ‘Belonging’ is also a function of place, in that one is connected to others at a particular place: a house, a town, a country. It is in these places that moments/times of connectedness occur: of fun, of love, of laughter, of pain, of discussion, of adventure. The stories, the myths, the traditions and the memories particular to a family and a ‘self’ are created in particular places in time.
Home for me is Outlook Crescent, Mackay, in the house that Dad built. I grew up there with my older brother, younger brother and younger sister. I remember how we would treat Mum and Dad to a restaurant experience at home complete with entertainment; take our dinners out the back to watch a lightning storm; have monopoly games where my older brother had to be the car and somehow always won; play in the mango tree house; go on great holidays in the Valiant; spend weekends at Nanna and Laurie’s house; head out on the ocean to fish and then camp on an island.
One’s memories seem to be ordered by particular images. For example, Christmas at Mum’s parents house in Redcliffe evokes images of the lawn being completely covered by snails in the morning, the Macadamia tree out the back and the red cliffs my older brother and I would spend hours exploring. It seems a sense of ‘belonging’ comes by way of the ’adventure’: by whom we’re having it with and where we’re having it. This ‘adventure’, or history, is how we define ourselves and gain a sense of belonging.
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