NAIMAS!

HUNGRY FOR LIFE!

EDUCATION - FOOD STUDIES - FILIPINA/O/X STUDIES - PRODUCTIVITY & PLAY

In honor and celebration of Filipino History Month I was a speaker for the 2nd Annual Filipino Cultural Summit hosted by the @filipinojayceesofhonolulu. For my session I presented on Naimas! The rise of Filipino Foodways in Hawai’i. My talk was about how food was used as a colonial tool in the Philippines and how it was used as a means to assimilate Filipina/o/x immigrants in Hawaii through education, school lunches, agriculture. To combat this colonial mentality that seeks to have us forget, replace, and abandon our culture, history, and ancestral knowledge. I developed my Naimas (ono, declicious, oishi) methodology as a lens to remember, reclaim, and reconnect with their Filipina’o/x identities. I want Filipina/o/x’s to crave, eat, and share their Filipina/o/x identity through Filipino Foodways proudly and unapologetically! For my session I created a set of Filipino Foodways receipe cards, create your own Filipino Foodways Menu (to create your own special meal & stories to share), Filipino Foodways Recipe card (to preserve your favorite recipe and talk story with your mom, grandma, aunty etc…) Lastly is my Filipino Food poem prompts! It’s a fun way to capture memories that will not perish or spoil with time. Please DM if you would like copies. They will also be available on my website…please check back here as I will announce my website launch soon! #naimas #filipinofoodwaysinhawaii #mahalo_halo
Heritage Kitchen: Reconnecting to Community through Food event at Manoa Heritage Center…1st of 3 Events! Had an amazing time sharing stories, food, and laughter! Big Mahalos to @lyzsoto, chef Harrison Ines. #naimas

It is only when we have plenty to eat—plenty of everything— that we begin to understand what freedom means. To us, freedom is not an intangible thing. When we have enough to eat, then we are healthy enough to enjoy what we eat. Then we have the time and ability to read and think and discuss things. Then we are not merely living but also becoming a creative part of life. It is only then that we become a growing part of democracy.

Carlos Bulosan

My journey, is two-fold: 

  • To re-member, relearn, and reclaim my heritage and publicly create meaningful ways to reconnect with my family’s stories in a process of what scholars in indigenous and colonial studies call “decolonizing the mind” (Rafael, 2016) 

  • As part of the process of decolonizing my mind, I will also interrogate the dominant paradisiacal plantation narrative that is still so pervasive in local culture in Hawaiʻi. This narrative, which continues to operate as a silencing mechanism, has been critiqued by numerous scholars since the 1970s, yet it still circulates crowding out other forms of experiences and perspectives, including the one I offer here.

    Dr. Shannon Cristobal


What’s your food story?

Where does your Filipina/o/x (or your own cultures) food knowledge come from? Reflect on your knowledge of Filipina/o/x food, consider where it comes from, how is this food and foodways knowledge transmitted and preserved, how was the body of knowledge constructed (ex. Oral history-storytelling, hands-on experience, recipes, cookbooks, etc…) ?

What is your first memory of food?

  • Take a moment, close your eyes and try to reflect back to one of your earliest memories of food. 

  • When was it? What does the food look, smell, and taste like? 

  • What is the dish called? Who cooked it? Where were you?

What dish do you crave when you’re sick?

  • What does the food look, smell, and taste like? 

  • Who usually cooks it for you? Who would you want to cook this dish for you to make you feel better? 

  • Try to build off what you write initially and journal your thoughts for about 2-3 minutes (reflecting on this person and his/her cooking). 

What is the one food that you could eat everyday and never get tired of?

  • Why? What is it about this dish that you like?