Ivy Harris

DANCE 1010
3/16/2015

Life History Interview

For my life history paper I chose to interview someone who is probably very different to
me in more ways than we are similar. She is from Papua New Guinea, which is north of
Australia. She is serving as a missionary here in Utah for the LDS church. I felt she and I have a
close enough relationship that we could share this interview experience with each other. Ive
heard her tell several stories every now and then about how her life was while she was growing
up and before she decided to serve a mission, but it was still exciting to have this interview and
learn more about her.
When we talked about how she would describe her culture she used the words unique and
diverse, also Christian based. I agree that her culture is unique, at least compared to ours in the
U.S. I dont know of any special dances for funerals or for harvesting or marriage. I think it
would be really awesome to have our own dances for celebrations of different events or holidays.
We dress up in costumes for Halloween holiday and for Marriage in my religion, which is LDS,
we marry and are sealed to our spouse in the temple for eternity. She described her culture as
males having power over women and children, not really like they ruled them but more like they
are expected to do most of the work and provide for the family. When I asked if her culture has
changed over time or if its stayed the same, she first responded that yes it has changed and then
said never mind it hasnt really changed. She remembers that in each house of a family, there is a
story carved into a wall that represents their family and what or who has played important roles

in their culture. One person in the family must read the story to the children weekly as a way of
helping children to recognize who they are and how their family came to be.
When I talk about my family, I include my mom, dad, and my siblings. I talk about
extended family and would consider them just as much family as my immediate family.
Sometimes I even include close friends and call them my second family or sisters when Im
talking about them, it helps people to understand how close those people are to me, more than
just friends in my life. When I asked about her family, she only really talks mostly of her
immediate family and sometimes her grandfather. She still has the same belief as I do though,
that family is anyone you love and care for enough to consider family.
She talks about her mom a lot and she tells me how protective she was over her, she is
her only daughter and she felt it was necessary to always carry with her some sort of protection
or self-defense mechanism. When anyone would look at her, her mother would give them a very
distinct look that meant stop looking about her daughter. Im assuming in her family, it was her
mothers main responsibility to keep her children safe from any harm that might come. Also the
family has a box with different objects such as sticks, and rocks, etc That box is always given
to the oldest male in that family and if there is not a son in the family the father keeps it and may
give it to his grandson if any. For me to compare to this, Ive grown up in a split family. My
parents divorced when I was in elementary school and I was not around my dad much, now I can
honestly say that I dont really know him enough to call him my father because he was and is
never around. My mom has always been protective of us and is careful with who she brings
around. No, she does not carry any weapons or give crazy looks to people who just glance at us.
Sometimes my mom will embarrassingly make a comment like, That guy is checking you out,

hes like my age. Or Please dont, marry someone like that. Those are ways I could relate
with my mom being protective. Her methods are just drastically different.
This part of the interview was the most interesting for me and I really enjoyed that she
did have something to contribute to the dance and music category. I felt she was really lucky to
be able to tell me that she does know and have dances that go along with her culture. I dont have
any dances that I know of that go along with my culture considering I dont really feel like I have
my own culture. In her culture she said there are dances made for specific genders and there are
some that are for both. One dance she focused on was for both genders and it was called the Yam
Dance, mainly takes place during September when they are harvesting yams. That dance has
women on one side in a line and men on the other side and once they start dancing it techinically
means they are dating and they will get married. That dance consists of several days and by the
end those couples that are dancing are considered married. That is only when you are in the
village that you are considered married but if you chose to do the dance in the city or outside of
the village you can just do the dance and learn it and will not being committed to anything
having to do with dating or marriage.
The women wear coconut grass skirts and the boys wear banana leaves. Also they women
wear a flower in their hair, when they have a flower in their hair and if it is worn in the right side
of their head, they are not married. When it is worn on the left side of their head they are
married. When we talked about dances in her culture being modified or changed from the
original form though out time, she said no. I dont know if it will start to change eventually, but
when she has done any dances or other events in her culture they have stayed the same in her
lifetime.

The forms of dances or art and music in her culture that are most valued are the dances
that are about wars. A lot of their dances represent wars. The instruments that are most
traditionally used in her culture are the conch shell, (reminded me of SpongeBob, we had a good
laugh from that.) the drum called the Kundu, that is made from bamboo, and the rattles. Those
instruments seemed pretty typical to me, it was what I expected her to say. The conch shell was
the most interesting because I honestly did not know it really existed as an instrument. She didnt
mention children being in or able to perform any of the dances or being around when those
events take place.
Id like to take a little time to explain how the lady I interviewed and I relate to each
other. Although we have grown up in different parts of the world we met here because of one
reason. She is a missionary, she converted to LDS when she was 19 and her father was not happy
about it, he practically disowned her, he went as far as telling her mother that she had died, I
couldnt imagine that at all. She has since been able to contact her mom, about 7 years later now,
the relationship is still not very strong but things may get better as time goes on. I am also LDS
and also share a similarity, being that I converted to the LDS religion at 19 as well, not quite a
year ago. Its really awesome to be able to see that Im not the only one that was converted
although it seems that way while growing up in Utah and it is the major religion in this state. A
difference for me though, is that my family was very accepting of it and I have not come across
anything too trying for me. I do know that my dads side of the family disagrees with my
decision and they probably wish I hadnt done it, but they also dont knock me down for it and
they are very respectful towards me which I appreciate very much.
Her experience in the United States has been really nice considering she is a sister
missionary serving in Utah. People tend to be very nice and accepting to her. Im not sure if that

would be because she is LDS or because they just choose to be nice but Im assuming its
because they see the very noticeable missionary tag and usually that draws much attention to her
and people like to find out about her life and know where she is from and what it is like being
away from home. She has even been accepted to the BYU College in Provo for when she has
completed her mission, they rewarded her a full ride scholarship.
She shared with me that when she came to Utah she was trying to pay for her bags in the
airport and they person running the station told her how much it was and she had no idea how to
count American currency. She got a little frustrated and handed all she had to the lady and said
here I dont know how to count American dollars so take what you need out of that and give me
the rest. What she didnt realize is that some people are so honest and by doing that she couldnt
have ended up in trouble and the lady could have taken more than she needed. Luckily she did
not.
My experience in Utah was a little different, when I first moved here people gave me the
cold shoulder. It was a typical question to be asked if I was a Mormon and I would always reply
no, most of those people would seem really concerned after I answered their question. Almost
like they felt sorry for me. I always felt really offended when I was asked and by the reaction I
got from some people. Later when I was in high school people matured and religion wasnt the
most important thing which was nice and things got easier. Till I had some friends in high school
that invited me to church a year after we graduated and I ended up converting a month and a half
later. Its something I could never regret but it has cost me a lot of commitment.
In conclusion its very interesting to me that other cultures are so in tune with dancing
and music and their religion and way of life. I never truly knew that until this assignment. Its
easy to pick out what is so uncommon between the American cultures and other cultures, in my

opinion they are so proud of their cultures and love to share it with people. Americans arent
really that way, we dont have special dances to go along with our seasons or that celebrate the
passing of a loved one. These are my own thoughts though, someone could have a separate
opinion about this topic. I learned that even though this sister and I are common in our faith and
have a strong love for what we believe, does not mean we are the same in everything. But we are
also not really that different, we still love and care about our families and friends and even our
countries. Ive never been given an example of treating people differently by the color of their
skin or their accent or where they are from, so for me its difficult for me to think of many ways
that I am different from her other than that we dont have significant dance for our celebrations
or special stories of my family that I must tell to my children. I could not be ashamed of this, I
am happy that I dont pick out those characteristics to see myself as better or as less than another
because of their cultural background.