Similar to Kai Tahu Māori, who have preserved their ritual of the Titi harvest. What aspects of culinary identity have your family preserved across generations and how may this have changed over time?
More than physical wellbeing; food is needed for survival, but how we eat is also important to our overall well being. In what other ways might this be?
Slice. Wrap. Fold. 切. 裹. 折… Essential steps to the making of my Haobu and Yaya’s Wontons.
Dr Hirini Kaa’s lecture on Matauranga and Maori kai values, specifically the preservation of Kai Tahu Maori’s Titi harvesting, is reminiscent to me of many childhood hours spent pouring over my grandparents, their creviced yet nimble fingers delicately pressing the edges of fine wonton wrappers together- preparing a dish over a thousand years old, anticipating sitting together as a family and eating them. I am lucky to taste the delicacies of my culture, to go out for Yum Cha or stay home and prepare Wontons. Similarly, the cultural preservation of Titi is a result of the annual crux that the harvest forms of many Kai Tahu incomes today.[1]
From a position of economic privilege, guaranteeing food security, my family- like Kai Tahu, can preserve a multi-generational culinary identity, albeit with changes to suit a Western food market. Cultural connection to food is not afforded by all. Steve and Maria from Not-for-Profit’s ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘KiwiHarvest’ revealed this to us on Monday. Despite their short-term solutions of providing food to lower socio-economic families- often Maori, Pasifika or refugees, a loss of cultural well-being is created. Cultural abnormalities such as asparagus, although given as an act of charity, are helping to strip away the generations of food preparation ingrained in these families- hangis, umu, ika mata, harira…
Thus the preservation of culture is not always an act of determination but a privilege allowed by wealth.
[1] Stevens, Michael J. 2006. Kāi Tahu me te Hopu Tītī ki Rakiura: An Exception to the ‘Colonial Rule’? The Journal of Pacific History 41(3):273-291.
This is so relatable. The trend of ‘being westernised= being elite’ is very real in China. The culinary traditions that being taught through generations carries the cultural identity of a family and a country. Making dumplings was a part of my family’s traditions during Spring festival. My grandparents would put a coin in to one of hundreds of dumplings, whoever eats the dumpling with the coin will have good luck for the year to come .
I think it’s really interesting how you bring up the point that wealth allows you to preserve your culture. In that way, money facilitates the continuation of history and knowledge. Like you said with the asparagus, people won’t be able to preserve their food culture and traditions if they can’t afford the resources needed to carry them out. I think this also nicely demonstrates the growing importance of money in today’s global world, how commoditisation is playing a bigger part in our society. In this case, do you think the level of wealth in a community or culture at least somewhat determines how well traditions are passed down and how well their cultural identity survives?