5. Remembering, Reconnecting and Redirecting the Gaze

See for an example of working with stakeholders within one space at a particular time, http://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​File:​Editing_​Hoxne_​Hoard_​at_​the_​British_​Museum.​ogv.

To review a blog written previously is instructive. It illustrates that one small act of unkindness can colour all the other incidents on a day. My sense of self as a ‘fairy god mother’ who smooths and tidies, never allows the dust to settle and ensures that the flowers grow remains a challenge. My sense of self has become more fragile as a result of being an immigrant and perhaps as a result of the trauma of civil war, political praxis and a divorce. But it is clear that being able to write and reflect helps to ensure a sense of perspective and an understanding of how emotions shape our perceptions. Lyrical sociology helps me to think not only about the areas of concern, but the human emptions and what these mean.

This conversation was based on a series of Skype to phone conversations with Peter. I made notes and shared these with Peter in a number of iterations, which he checked and edited, to his satisfaction. Peter is a member of the ‘lost generation’. He lived in a children’s home in Adelaide. ‘As little ones we did not know that what was happening to us was wrong.’ He was adopted by ‘Aboriginal parents’.

Conversations recorded on Sunday 20th and Sunday 27th February and Tuesday the 13th April and 1 January, 2014, which are the basis of this section.

Olive Veverbrandts and Peter Turner are elders and community leaders who bridge many worlds. Olive traces her family to China, Europe and Afghanistan, whereas Peter is an orphan who was adopted by Aboriginal parents. He thinks he may have been part of the stolen generation, but is unsure. His kinship is with his adopted family. His responsibility is for the land and for the next generation. His approach to time and space and relationships contrasts with the ‘time is money’ philosophy, which leads not only to disrespectful relationships with one another—through treating people, animals, the land and the sea as commodities from which we can profit. Relationships and being in the world are what matter from their point of view.

Wilson, L., 2011. ‘Praise offered as Chief Scientist makes early exit’. The Australian, page 2, Feb 19th–20th ‘on the ABC’s Lateline program last year, Professor Sackett said she believed the government should consider a role for nuclear energy alongside a raft of other clean energy alternatives…. Professor Sackett recently oversaw two reports for the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council on food security and water and carbon initiatives…the government is planning to introduce a price on carbon from July 1 next year before moving to an emissions trading scheme from 2015–16….’ http://​www.​theaustralian.​com.​au/​national-affairs/​praise-offered-as-chief-scientist-makes-early-exit/​story-fn59niix-1226008392820?​nk=​a6ed2562bff60804​e336a8d9c3935be1​ Accessed 22/07/2014

See Haraway, 1991. We cannot divide ourselves from the issues. This divided thinking in terms of us/them, self/other/the environment underlines modern thinking (Hulme 2009, 2010; Beck 2010).

(both local and international) colludes to exploit the nations natural resources and the people—

As a result of reading Bausch (2010, 2011) on body wisdom and praxis, I have explored the meaning of the following experience in Gothenburg. The ‘Cheese Grater’ is the nickname given to low bridges spanning the Göta River in Gothenburg Sweden. Our guide shared stories about the history and architecture. A group of colleagues from ISA accompanied me. As we approached the first bridge, we were told by our guide to bend our heads so that we would pass through unscathed. The next bridge was lower and we were requested to lean forward. My reflex response was to flatten myself on the floor of the boat. I wondered whether my response to danger was heightened by living and working in KanGwane and Pretoria where bombs and threats trained my reflexes. Bausch talks about how our conscious sense of self and others can be heightened by listening responsively and sharing our thoughts in a faithful, open manner. This exercise is partly one of endo mindfulness, partly analytical and academic and partly practical in so far as it helps to explore the way in which identity is shaped not only by one’s life chances and experiences but also by our own will. My body remembered just as my mind provides flashbacks to stressful events. Being other—a white South African I was only privileged to the extent that I ‘toed the line’. A sense of guilt seems to me to be a normal response to this situation along with existential angst.

It is a form of auto-ethnogtraphy on my own life and how my values and culture have been shaped.

In so doing it provides greater clarity on what I have chosen to research and why.

Reflecting on what it was like to be ‘privileged’ because of being white is of little interest, other than giving a sense of daily life.

Lyrical sociology I oppose to narrative sociology, by which I mean standard quantitative inquiry with its “narratives” of variables as well as those parts of qualitative sociology that take a narrative and explanatory approach to social life. Lyrical sociology is characterised by an engaged non-ironic stance towards its object of analysis, by specific location of both its subject and its object in social space…it typically uses strong figuration and personification, as aims to communicate its author’s emotional stance toward his or her object of study, rather than to explain that object. (Abbot 2007, p. 65)

In this book, I rely not so much on the historical past of archives, but my own family ethnography spanning generations—commencing with the role of the ethnographer George Thompson to gain an understanding of relationships of power. The relationship between colonists and colonizers is vital to understand, because the relationships of power play out across the state, the labour market and their engagement with civil society. Governance and the importance of monitory democracy is the focus of the research.

The policy, politics and processes for getting this done depend on involving people in ways that make sense to them. Face-to-face conversations still matter so enabling people to feel a sense of local community and wider solidarity will always be a challenge. Locals need to be invited to adopt a wider issue to work on. I really like Conversations with My Sons and Daughters. Although it is about South Africa, it is equally relevant to everyone. It resonated because it was all about telling stories and enabling people organically to work out what they could do—and what resources they could offer at the local level. Now I think that the same healing methods need to work at the wider level. People need to say what they can offer and how it will benefit mutual wellbeing.

My hobbies as a white South African were ballet and art classes as a small child. I enjoyed painting with my Great Uncle George, named for George Thompson.

I realized that the role plays were an opportunity for patients to demonstrate how they saw the medical staff. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the hilarious portrayal of me by a patient who stood behind me copying my movements. I laughed and laughed, as did the patient, which helped to break the ice and to develop some rapport.

This is a colloquialism for student accommodation, in this case a cottage shared with Melanie McIntosh.

I thought at the time about the ironical ‘crossing out’ of a strand of the Gardiol family from the bible in the Huguenot Museum in Franschoek, because a family member had moved to what was then called South West Africa and ‘married a local’.

The Afrikaans term for a headscarf, meaning a small piece of cloth.

A beanie is the colloquial term for a knitted hat.

The name given for the design of 51/9 apartheid houses for which Africans qualified in terms of the Group Areas Act because they were born in the area and because they could demonstrate that they had a pass.

The baby’s nappy was worn draped over a skirt by all the initiates to symbolize their start on a journey of healing their illness. This journey began as the result of a calling by the ancestors.

This is the Xhosa word for dancing stick; it incorporated the tail of a cow, which I understand symbolized sacrifice to the ancestors.

This Afrikaans word means Farmer’s sausage.

South African expression for Christmas present.