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to focus on working towards 'arab-centred' approaches, why not share some stories from your own experience - whether practical or theoretical ...
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or
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what do you want to see come out of this initiative?
what have you learned from other projects that you don't want to see repeated here?
what annoys you?
what excites you?
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3 comments:
Hey all
What shits me are arab events that have a belly dancer!! theres much more to being an arab than shaking some flab and i think we all agree.
AND! another thing, Non arabs telling arab stories!!! Well they are connected but you know what i mean. !
I love seeing international Arab writers, thinkers etc on Aussie land talking about the state of the Arab world.
I am a film maker and have made films about Arab issues. But thats only beacuse thats what i want to talk about. But do i want to talk about it because that what i am? Sort of like the chicken and the egg (its 2:41am, im in the middle of an export-forgive me!). My works never used to be around an arab issues. HMM...food for thought.
What do i want to see...ill get back to ya. Right now- i want to see more arabs researching about arabs, making films about arabs etc.
I think i should stop now.
Fatoum
I didn't begin my research project thinking I was doing something arab centered. My intention was to research the Lebanese Australian story which I felt had been largely ignored. I saw this as fitting into the new social history and the writing of history from the bottom up. It was also my story and the research journey took me somewhere quite unexpected. As I analysed the empirical evidence I began to understand the power of whiteness; how that power has impacted on the Lebanese Australian story; and how conditional the acceptance of Lebanese Australians (who were not quite white) was. AM
reading fatoum's commments and i see where she's coming from with the belly dancer thing but at the same time (as a woman of arab heritage) i love belly dancing and shaking my flab so i refuse to let the fact that it has been orientalised ruin the fun and beauty of the dance. But i have to admit that sometimes it really bothers me that when i look around the dance studio I'm the only one who is of arab heritage...and i stick out like a brown thumb (to mix my metaphors!) but at the same time it's a wonderful form of physical expression so why shouldn't non-arabs enjoy it too?! I re-hash these arguments in my head over and over and still haven't come to a resolution. Maybe i never will...
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