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'Persistent' Migrant Kitchens: Spatial Analogies and the Politics of Sharing.

Authors :
Pieris, Anoma
Palipane, Kelum
Source :
Australian Feminist Studies. Jun2022, Vol. 37 Issue 112, p169-187. 19p.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Using the spatial analogy of the migrant kitchen this article makes an argument for diversifying Australian feminist architectural practice and disciplinary inquiry to anticipate other culturally plural framings and experiences of the built environment. Its parallel focus on four ethnographic vignettes offers insights into the ways in which migrants mobilise familial culinary traditions for building ontological security in new environments, examining how constituent parts of kitchen spaces migrate and are adapted by Lankan-Australians in Melbourne and Canberra. It argues that the 'transmigration' of kitchens and their hybrid reincarnation uncovers nuanced, temporal, socio-political dimensions of migrant origin and experience indecipherable to host communities that frequently reduce them to ethno-cultural traits. We discuss the assimilatory practices that migrant women of colour daily navigate as revealing the unavoidable complexities within normative constructions of the Australian home. We posit the migrant kitchen as a site of adaptation and persistence in the face of diffused processes of assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
08164649
Volume :
37
Issue :
112
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Australian Feminist Studies
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
174546327
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2023.2199909