this is where it begins merlinda bobis

“This Is Where It Begins” by Merlinda Bobis is a lyric poem that celebrates how storytelling and ancestral languages shape identity, memory, and family connection, especially for Asian‑Australian migrants. It traces a speaker’s childhood memories of grandparents’ ghost stories and parents’ study of Spanish, then widens out to show how words and tales “under the skin” become the start of a personal and cultural story.

What the poem is about

• The poem recalls the speaker as a child (“I am six years old, perhaps five”) listening to grandparents’ stories of a “crab stealer under the bed” and a mysterious lady in the hills, blurring fear, magic, and affection.

• It then connects these memories to the family’s different languages (Bikol, Filipino/Tagalog, Spanish, English) and shows how they mix inside the speaker’s mind and body. Story and language become the place “where it begins” – where identity is first formed.

Key themes in This Is Where It Begins

• Storytelling and identity
  • Family stories repeated “over and over again” become part of the speaker’s sense of self, not just entertainment.

* The repeated metaphor of something being “under my skin” suggests the tales and voices have sunk in so deeply that they feel like a physical part of her **being**.

• Language and cultural roots
  • The first stanzas appear in Bikol and Filipino, before English, immediately placing the poem in a multilingual, diasporic space and hinting at both connection and distance for readers who do not share those tongues.

* The mother practicing Spanish for college, mixed with the grandparents’ stories, shows how colonial and native languages collide and coexist in one family history.

• Diaspora and belonging
  • As an Asian‑Australian text, the poem reflects how children of migrants inherit stories from another homeland while growing up in a different country.

* Storytelling becomes the “umbilical cord restored,” a way to reconnect with origin and community across time, place, and generations.

How Bobis crafts these ideas

• Imagery and metaphor
  • Ghosts, crab stealers, and dream‑women create tactile, spooky images that make childhood fear vivid while hinting at cultural folklore.

* The umbilical cord metaphor at the end powerfully figures storytelling as a lifeline between ancestors and descendants, repairing broken ties.

• Repetition and structure
  • Repeating “I am six years old, perhaps five” mirrors the haziness of memory and the search for the exact point where a life story starts.

* The refrain‑like “under my skin” stresses how words and tales accumulate inside the speaker over time.

• Tone and perspective
  • The voice shifts from intimate childhood recollection to reflective, almost philosophical musings on what storytelling really does to people.

* By the closing stanzas, the poem confidently declares that storytelling is not lonely, but communal and connective, joining “eyes, lips, hands” in a shared act.

Why it resonates now

• The poem speaks strongly to second‑generation and migrant readers negotiating multiple languages, cultures, and expectations in places like Australia.

• In current discussions about diaspora and decolonising literature, Bobis’ focus on ancestral language, family lore, and the bodily feel of stories makes the poem a frequently studied HSC text and a touchpoint for classroom and online forum debates.

TL;DR: This Is Where It Begins by Merlinda Bobis shows that a person’s story starts in childhood memories of family storytellers and inherited languages, which weave together to form a deep, under‑the‑skin connection to culture and ancestry.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.