Our heritage centres us wherever we settle

...of holding to some aspects of your heritage, even as you embrace a different way of life.

I'VE just got off the phone to Commerce, Michigan, US, talking to a former Masterton man about their annual hangi at their home, one hour north of Detroit.

It's a story I hope to feature in the Wairarapa Times-Age, once the family return from their holiday in Florida and forward me some images.

But it did bring me to mind of cultural traditions, of holding to some aspects of your heritage, even as you embrace a different way of life.

I believe that people do not survive for long in a different setting if they cling to a different way of life. It is certainly a lesson I learned in travelling and working in England, and I consider the same applies to working in Wairarapa.

Obviously, I'm not going to be able to transform to a complete Wairarapa package; my basic ignorance about farming will prevent that. But people who can say, this is where I am, right now, and get on with it, are people who have the right attitude to life.

But that doesn't mean that a tradition can be discarded. Some of us have quirks of respect for what made us, and where we came from. But lately I've noticed these quirks have become more profound, and more widely noted.

It could be the nostalgia for a proper solstice roast dinner, like a Christmas dinner in England. But it is especially noted with a tradition like Armistice Day. Ten years ago, it was really only a nod to that 11th hour of the 11th day. Now it's a major event, noted in most towns.

Traditions centre us. They don't overwhelm us. We understand where we are, and what we're doing, like the Masterton man doing landscaping for 30 years in Michigan. There's a reason he's there, doing that, and paying his US taxes. But none of us really want to be in that "great big melting pot", as the song goes. There are things we bring out, sometimes at parties, or sometimes in private. Sometimes we're survivors in a strange land, but we remember our culture.