Kiwi | Algerian
My Mother grew up in New Zealand and moved to England at the age of 19. My Father Grew up in Algers, Algeria and has moved between Algeria, England and Spain frequently ever since. My parents met in London, but never stayed together, so my experience of their cultures has been very separate. Most of my extended family are still in New Zealand or Algeria and I have been to both countries multiple times to visit them. Because I grew up predominantly with my Mother, I never identified as mixed-race until I met my Algerian family at around 7-8 years old. Before that my Mother never really explained where my Father was from properly, although I knew he wasn’t English or Kiwi. I don’t look typically Algerian although some people have guessed before, I often get mistaken for being Albanian or Turkish. Later in my teens I began to reconnect with my Algerian family and started to realise that I was mixed-race, and I started to gain an interest for my Fathers country and culture. The area I was living in unfortunately is very Islamophobic in certain parts, so I made it my concern to stand up to anyone who I heard insulting the culture or religion in front of me. As I learnt more about it and grew older I began to embrace my mixed heritage as much as possible, this was a really positive change for me as I was very confused about my identity before. One of the hardest parts for me has been the fact that I don’t speak Arabic or French so it’s difficult for me to talk to some of my family and connect with other Algerians, I am currently trying to learn some French to help me with this! I feel like after accepting my identity as mixed-race I have been a lot happier and more confident in myself. It made me realise that all my nationalities can co-exist together and has made me proud of England, New Zealand and Algeria. If I were to be born again I would return exactly as I am! It has taken me a long time to get to this kind of mind set but I am glad I have finally reached it. The only thing I would change is the fact that I don’t speak French or Arabic, so I would return exactly the same but tri-lingual.
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