A Subject of Curiosity

Parrots chattered. Boys played cricket on a dusty street, litter strewn broad pavements led to the largest park in the city but the boys rather play here in Marquis Street oblivious to the social unrest and political instability that constantly worried their parents. Panic took the form of plans, life plans, which in fight or flight mode were rapidly carried out. It had the air of a competition. Passages on ships were being booked immigration papers were being applied for, such a wonderful offer was being given to skilled workers "assisted passages" this meant entire families could board a ship to arrive in Australia or Britain for a nominal amount of money or even free. Families that had enjoyed comfortable lifestyles for generations were preparing to uproot and naively, bravely head off into whole new worlds. Places seen in films described in songs and portrayed in postcards and magazines. Places more imagined then real. Is this nebulous sketchy and unreliable information gathered from anywhere, everywhere, not here or there, enough to base a life changing decision on? The answer to this is yes it was all many immigrants were armed with when they left their homelands. A newly married couple recently arrived in Marquis Street but had very different ideas on immigration. As they had a business to run the wife was going to take responsibility for any life decisions to be made. She would go to England for a few months stay to experience first hand what life would be like. A woman of colour in 1965 in London alone excited and full of hopes and dreams, a woman childlike and trusting, a woman unaware of her identity, status, and race as viewed by people outside her own country. Read on to find out the transformations that learning about ones own subjectivity can bring about and how our thoughts and feelings about ourselves can be constructed to shape our behaviour to conform to societies demands.