Post by dk on Nov 19, 2006 19:42:29 GMT -5
Interview with Eugenie Lam [2004]
1) Background information (who, what, when, where, etc!)
I am 39. My parents immigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver when I was one. Have worked over the past 15 years in ESL, immigrant and refugee organizations, teaching, research, community agencies, taught and studied overseas and travelled the Pacific Rim.
2) What have your experiences with racialization, and more importantly, how have they inspired you to resist and work towards positive change?
My experiences around racialization have pushed me to unlearn a "normalized" assimilationist story of the world and my place in it. It was a comfortable story. Giving us this comfort wasn't easy despite the fact that I always felt the cracks and knew that things didn't always feel "right". I had to start thinking, listening, seeing and acting in a whole new way. I feel like my learning is never complete. There is no other moral choice that I can take except to keep moving toward a place where social change happens even when that change is so small and subversive so it cannot be wiped out.
3) How has your involvement with this particular project evolved over time?
I facilitated about 6 focus groups with girls. Was involved in the Popular Education Theatre Project which was part of the main research project. Involved in putting together and analysing data from a survey of executive directors and front line staff of youth and family serving agencies in Victoria about their commitment to and awareness about racialized girls.
4) What have you learned about racialized girls in Victoria, and is there a need (yea!) for Victoria to have an organization like Anti-dote? Why?
There is a variety of experiences. Many of the girls I met with had never sat down to talk about the complexities of identity (who they are, how they see themselves and how they are seen by schools, family, media, dominant white society) with others who were "like them". They were very articulate and had obviously thought about identity but didn't necessarily have the language or opportunity to articulate their feelings and the contradictions they experienced.
1) Background information (who, what, when, where, etc!)
I am 39. My parents immigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver when I was one. Have worked over the past 15 years in ESL, immigrant and refugee organizations, teaching, research, community agencies, taught and studied overseas and travelled the Pacific Rim.
2) What have your experiences with racialization, and more importantly, how have they inspired you to resist and work towards positive change?
My experiences around racialization have pushed me to unlearn a "normalized" assimilationist story of the world and my place in it. It was a comfortable story. Giving us this comfort wasn't easy despite the fact that I always felt the cracks and knew that things didn't always feel "right". I had to start thinking, listening, seeing and acting in a whole new way. I feel like my learning is never complete. There is no other moral choice that I can take except to keep moving toward a place where social change happens even when that change is so small and subversive so it cannot be wiped out.
3) How has your involvement with this particular project evolved over time?
I facilitated about 6 focus groups with girls. Was involved in the Popular Education Theatre Project which was part of the main research project. Involved in putting together and analysing data from a survey of executive directors and front line staff of youth and family serving agencies in Victoria about their commitment to and awareness about racialized girls.
4) What have you learned about racialized girls in Victoria, and is there a need (yea!) for Victoria to have an organization like Anti-dote? Why?
There is a variety of experiences. Many of the girls I met with had never sat down to talk about the complexities of identity (who they are, how they see themselves and how they are seen by schools, family, media, dominant white society) with others who were "like them". They were very articulate and had obviously thought about identity but didn't necessarily have the language or opportunity to articulate their feelings and the contradictions they experienced.