The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary
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A side dish complementing the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary cookbook, The flavour of freedom
What do you see when you look at your dinner plate? If I think about this at all, I just see fruits and vegetables, pulses and beans, some herbs and spices. Occasionally I might worry that a child in Ghana laboured with a keen-edged sharp machete to harvest the cocoa for my home-made chocolate cinnamon cake. I’m dimly aware that my attempts at making spicy chickpeas patties are inspired by felafel dishes from the Levant. A while ago I discovered that the appealing labels on free range and organic products conceal many unpalatable truths. Every year, thousands of pigs are raised in New Zealand prisons and their bodies sold as ‘ethical’ meat to companies such as Freedom Farms – and sadly, for incarcerated people, working for a few cents an hour on a prison pig farm may be preferable to the banality of other prison jobs.
Most days, however, I don’t think about who grew and harvested the food I eat, nor do I mihi (acknowledge) to the peoples around the world whose cuisine informed my favorite recipes.
Yet food is deeply political. Colonisation, cultural appropriation, international trade and commercialism all shape our daily meals. While putting this page together, I realised that the history of food is actually the history of the world - from the contested origins of hummus and felafel to acts of resistance through reviving ancestral recipes.
Food and agriculture are woven into our myths of origin. In many settler colonies, food has been an essential strand of the colonial nation building project. Indigenous foods, recipes and agricultural wisdom have been either appropriated or repressed, in an attempt to build a new national identity. Here in Aotearoa, Indigenous lands were confiscated and forests cleared to raise cows, sheep and other imported animals. ‘Classic’ dishes such as roast lamb, meat pies, ginger crunch, and pavlova are all products of colonisation.
Conversely, in mid-twentieth century Palestine, Zionist settlers were quick to claim local foods as their own, deliberately abandoning their own food traditions and creating a ‘new’ food culture that tried to localise the colonists as Indigenous. A well-known Israeli postcard portrays a mountain of pita bread and felafel, an Israeli flag waving on the summit.
Many Western cookbooks also incorporate ingredients, recipes and techniques derived from Indigenous foodways, even if not quite so blatantly. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in The flavour of freedom to explore all the food traditions associated with these recipes. We have decided to include some extra online content and links as a starting point. This is an evolving project and we welcome contributions - please contact [email protected]
Find out more about food, colonisation, and sovereignty
Dunn | Kaimangatanga: Maori Perspectives on Veganism and Plant-based Kai | Animal Studies Journal
Food Empowerment Project
Israel-Palestine: How food became a target of colonial conquest | Middle East Eye
Feminist food politics
He Ika Haehae Kupenga - Te Kaupapa
Tulloch | The Price of Milk: Dairy Farming as Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand | Animal Studies Journal
Māori Women Promoting Food Sovereignty in Aotearoa (New Zealand) - University of Otago
What is Hua Parakore? - Jessica Hutchings
What do you see when you look at your dinner plate? If I think about this at all, I just see fruits and vegetables, pulses and beans, some herbs and spices. Occasionally I might worry that a child in Ghana laboured with a keen-edged sharp machete to harvest the cocoa for my home-made chocolate cinnamon cake. I’m dimly aware that my attempts at making spicy chickpeas patties are inspired by felafel dishes from the Levant. A while ago I discovered that the appealing labels on free range and organic products conceal many unpalatable truths. Every year, thousands of pigs are raised in New Zealand prisons and their bodies sold as ‘ethical’ meat to companies such as Freedom Farms – and sadly, for incarcerated people, working for a few cents an hour on a prison pig farm may be preferable to the banality of other prison jobs.
Most days, however, I don’t think about who grew and harvested the food I eat, nor do I mihi (acknowledge) to the peoples around the world whose cuisine informed my favorite recipes.
Yet food is deeply political. Colonisation, cultural appropriation, international trade and commercialism all shape our daily meals. While putting this page together, I realised that the history of food is actually the history of the world - from the contested origins of hummus and felafel to acts of resistance through reviving ancestral recipes.
Food and agriculture are woven into our myths of origin. In many settler colonies, food has been an essential strand of the colonial nation building project. Indigenous foods, recipes and agricultural wisdom have been either appropriated or repressed, in an attempt to build a new national identity. Here in Aotearoa, Indigenous lands were confiscated and forests cleared to raise cows, sheep and other imported animals. ‘Classic’ dishes such as roast lamb, meat pies, ginger crunch, and pavlova are all products of colonisation.
Conversely, in mid-twentieth century Palestine, Zionist settlers were quick to claim local foods as their own, deliberately abandoning their own food traditions and creating a ‘new’ food culture that tried to localise the colonists as Indigenous. A well-known Israeli postcard portrays a mountain of pita bread and felafel, an Israeli flag waving on the summit.
Many Western cookbooks also incorporate ingredients, recipes and techniques derived from Indigenous foodways, even if not quite so blatantly. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in The flavour of freedom to explore all the food traditions associated with these recipes. We have decided to include some extra online content and links as a starting point. This is an evolving project and we welcome contributions - please contact [email protected]
Find out more about food, colonisation, and sovereignty
Dunn | Kaimangatanga: Maori Perspectives on Veganism and Plant-based Kai | Animal Studies Journal
Food Empowerment Project
Israel-Palestine: How food became a target of colonial conquest | Middle East Eye
Feminist food politics
He Ika Haehae Kupenga - Te Kaupapa
Tulloch | The Price of Milk: Dairy Farming as Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand | Animal Studies Journal
Māori Women Promoting Food Sovereignty in Aotearoa (New Zealand) - University of Otago
What is Hua Parakore? - Jessica Hutchings
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Chocolate - the history and politics of cacao
Cookbook references: Chocolate raspberry brownie; Rich chocolate cake; Hedgehog slice; Coconut raspberry slice; Chocolate peanut butter cups; Chocolate cupcakes; Double chocolate cookies; Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies; Oaty chocolate apricot cookies; Bliss balls |
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Ginger and its roots
Cookbook references: Ginger crunch; Myra's biscuits; Creamy spicy tofu; Roasted cauliflower with coconut; Spicy coconut chickpeas; Spicy red lentils, mushrooms and spinach |
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Nachos, a dish with Mesoamerican origins
Cookbook reference: Nachos |
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Olive oil in Palestine
Cookbook references: King hummus; Slow-roasted tomatoes; Creamy garlic mushrooms; Homemade felafel |
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Peanuts
Cookbook reference: Gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies; Peanut butter cups; Peanut butter fudge |
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