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Analyzing Keira Jenkins 'Essay What It's Like'

725 Words3 Pages

The “What it’s Like”. What’s really like growing up as a young biracial woman in the ‘land down under’, better known as Australia? Written by an Indigenous Gamilaroi woman, journalist and photographer Keira Jenkins expresses her story, ‘What it’s like’ in the book Growing up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss. Jenkins’ publication illustrates the hostilities personally challenged as a multiracial female growing up in Australia. Jenkins communicates a valuable understanding of the effects people’s actions and judgements possess on their victim’s mental health, causing them to question their identity. Jenkins foregrounds the struggles against the unwavering opinions of her peers, family and even strangers, verbalizing how those actions impact …show more content…

On page 122 of the autobiography, Jenkins states, “I’ve been torn down, by my own people, by white people, by people I had considered friends and allies, by institutions and societies; the time I cut my thighs, my wrists, my chest just to see if I bled the same. That’s how the girl who’s told she’s not Aboriginal enough struggled.” The constant conclusions people made about Jenkins caused her to see the difference in herself in a negative light creating a sense of hatred not only towards the opinions people had about her Jenkins harmed herself in an attempt to challenge society’s opinions about her, in the hopes of finding an attribute about her that could be like others. Comprehensively, Keira Jenkins positions the universal audience to raise awareness of Aboriginal struggles, whilst encompassing the select indigenous audience to relate to her struggles aiming to feel a sense of inclusion. The unfair assumptions made about Jenkins stuck with her and created a sense of division between her and everyone else, this all resulted in the deterioration of her mental health, causing her to do unimaginable harm to

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