Delving the gastronomic identities and food memories among Indo-Fijians in diasporic conditions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Food and foodways engage the social and cultural moments connoting the memory with the gustatory world, which illuminates the social structure, domesticity, identity, resilience, transnational histories of empire, and many more. This study focuses on food being an intangible cultural heritage, gastronomic identity, and culture, (dis)similarities in the preparation and consumption among Indo-Fijians and transmigrants. The exploratory qualitative method where open-ended questions and in-depth interviews were conducted to explore identity related to food with thirteen Indo-Fijian families and a reflexive narrative report using a narrative coding lens is prepared. Their personal reflective accounts were recorded. Food being a part of culture and identity, is found to be continuing the interaction between migrants and hosts, and makes an ambivalent relationship. Food and foodways are in flux and pass through a state of in-betweenness. The transmigrants show a sense of belonging to their ancestral home, (re)rootedness, acculturation, and hybridisation by (re)constructing the food identities.