Merantau: Stories of Indonesian Food and Migration – Launch
Presented by Merantau Stories
Details
Free, booking required
Balam Balam Place
15 Phoenix Street, Brunswick VIC, Australia
Merantau: Stories of Indonesian Food and Migration is a new book project that explores the deep relationship between food, culture and migration within the Indonesian diaspora.
Part cookbook and part anthropological document, Merantau: Stories of Indonesian Food and Migration brings together recipes and personal stories from Indonesian households living across Victoria. ‘Merantau’ — meaning to wander, journey or explore, referring to impermanent migration — reflects traditions of movement and exchange that have long shaped the Southeast Asian archipelago.
The first Merantau story of peoples arriving in Australia is that of Makassan seafarers who built deep connections with Yolŋu people of North East Arnhem Land, sharing language, technologies, cooking practices and ideas during the pre-colonial era of the seventeenth century.
This book project visits nine households across Victoria to document contemporary Merantau stories and the recipes that have moved with them. The book situates these stories within a much longer history of connection between Indonesia and Australia.
To honour these early connections, the launch will feature a serving of pallu mara, a Makassan fish soup that represents this shared culinary history and may be among the earliest dishes prepared by non-Indigenous visitors and shared with Indigenous communities on these lands.
The event will also include a conversation with the book’s author and contributors, who will reflect on migration, memory and the role of food in carrying culture across borders and generations.
The launch brings together the stories, histories and flavours that connect Indonesia and Australia through food.
Participants
Kris Redden
Kris Redden is an Indonesian-Australian poet, community facilitator and Australia-Indonesia relations enthusiast residing in Melbourne/Naarm.
Previously an Education Officer at the Australia Indonesia Youth Association, and currently a committee member of Nongkrong Festival and a dangdut band performer, Kris is committed to strengthening relations between Australia and Indonesia through storytelling and arts.
Ruby Healey
Ruby Healey is a multidisciplinary designer and co-founder of Idle Time Studio, a shared artist studio in Brunswick East.
Her practice sits at the intersection of communication design, human-centred design, and image making, with a focus on documenting, interpreting and making sense of our world.
She is interested in collective practice, archiving and independent publishing.