Promotionsprojekt (Zweitbetreuung durch Prof. Dr. Herzberg)
Culinary Land Claims: The Representation of Indigenous Foodways in Canada
How do Canadians imagine political and national identities through food? There are over 8000 restaurants in Toronto. Until the Pow Wow Café opened in 2016, only one offered Indigenous cuisine: Tea N’ Bannock. However, in 2017, the year of Canada’s 150th birthday and two years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report concluding that residential schools committed cultural genocide, two more Indigenous restaurants have opened: NishDish Marketeria and Ku-Kum Kitchen. In efforts made by Indigenous communities across the country to reclaim languages, traditions, and culture, food plays a central role. My doctoral dissertation traces both the presence and absence of Indigenous restaurants in Canada and contextualizes this history in light of the new Nordic food movement, the global relocalization of cuisine, the emergence of Canadian restaurants, and changing imaginations of food and place.