So, I'm sitting here listening to some of my favorite music and got the idea that maybe I should write a bit of an explanation. About what? Well, about me, I guess.
You see, I've been living in Australia for over 8 years now. It's a long time to be away from friends, family and all the things familiar to you. Visits home are great because I spend a lot of the time stocking up on things I missed and people and places I remember from my childhood because, I'll be honest wit you, as similar as Australia and Canada are...they are still DIFFERENT.
In some ways, I think it would have been easier to adjust to some things here if they had been more different to what I was used to. When everything is so much the same, you forget and begin to expect things to be a certain way, which means it's kind of a bigger jolt when it isn't. I gave up a lot of things when I came here, changed habits and what not, and one of the things that fell by the wayside for a long time was the parts of me that were 'country'.
Sydney is a huge sprawling internationally recognized city. It has its lower ends and very up market areas, its cultural districts and its trends. It is very commercial and forward yet still a bit backward and stuck in the past...an odd combination that has taken me a long time to get used to and it still bugs me at times. But it's very urban. The closest thing to truly rural Australia that you get here in Sydney is probably the Royal Easter Show, otherwise you have to drive for about 3 hours before you start to see more of the country heart of the place. Which is why, when I moved here, the cowboy boots, the big belt buckles, the turquoise jewelry and so forth all got packed away. I wanted a change and I wanted to blend in.
I eventually came to realize some things, though. I missed it and it will always be a part of me, no matter how deep into the city feel I get. I wouldn't exactly call myself a redneck, but there's a big part of me that rolls my eyes at some of what I see in the city. Spending my summers out on the family farm, life was so easy! It was quiet and peaceful and you didn't have to worry about makeup or getting dirty or meeting expectations. You got frustrated with something, you hopped in the truck or on the back of a bike and just went off for a while.
So, the country stuff came back because, as much as love girly things and dressing up, I missed the simplicity of my boots and jeans and plaid shirts. *laugh* And then the looks started.
I'm a pretty eccentric person and I do costuming. I'm USED to people giving me odd looks when I'm doing that. But walking into a shopping center with my cowboy hat on, a plaid shirt and boots...I think I got more stares than I usually do.
Sydney doesn't see their 'cowboys' often...and they don't quite look the same as North American ones do. Rural Aussies seem to be more heavy work boots, singlets and low brimmed dusty hats that MIGHT have had a shape at one point. They're beer cans in stubbie coolers and lawn chairs with cattle dogs panting next to them. It's a different image, so I don't quite match.
I grew up in a city but I also grew up in the country, around horses and cattle, dirt bikes, rodeos and demolition derbies. When I think back to the first music I can remember hearing on the radio, it was country. Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline...that was my childhood. Then came Reba McIntire, George Strait, Garth Brooks and then Shania. I had friends among the local First Nations kids...and enemies too. I grew up aware of the modern issues of the Native American/Canadian tribes and had run ins with some, which probably affected my thoughts about them for some time, but I was also fascinated with their history and their culture. I grew up hearing stories about Coyote and Grandfather Raven and How Bear Lost His Tail. I learned how to bake bannock bread and about pemmican because the explorers that founded my country used it to survive on. (Something, I just found out, that got picked up by Australia explorers like the ill fated Burke and Wills) I remember being invited to learn how to make dreamcatchers with a class of native students...something I've made many of since and never forgotten how to do.
As I got older, I began researching and learning about my own genetic heritage, being Norwegian, and learned about the Norse mythologies and culture. What I found was that many of the things that fascinated me about the Native American culture were echoed, sometimes strongly, in my own heritage. The art styles, the crafts, the reverence given ravens and the stories of tricksters...all have such strong similarities that I am no longer surprised that there was a viking settlement so early in history up in what is now Newfoundland. I'm sure that the cultural similarities would have made communication easier between the two groups, despite the language barriers.
The western country elements I wear and love have many layers of significance to me, these days, many of which I could expand on for pages but I won't. The connections to my heritage and childhood, my country and family being the gist of it. The stares continue here in Australia but I've gotten used to that, too, and it makes me laugh sometimes. I like shaking things up, a little.
X-Posted to LJ
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