Artists Explore Colonial Food Histories Through Breadfruit, Rice, and Snails

Artist Nathalie Muchamad presented her work exploring colonial food histories in the exhibition "En des lieux sans merci" at Maison des arts de Malakoff near Paris in December 2025. Muchamad, an Indonesian-French artist born in New Caledonia, focuses on breadfruit as a symbol of colonial plantation systems. Her installation "Breadfruit, Mutiny, Planetarity" (2024) examines the 18th-century British HMS Bounty mission to transport breadfruit from Polynesia to the Caribbean to feed enslaved plantation workers. The work highlights how this nutritious crop, once stigmatized as slave food, is now considered a climate-resilient superfood. Other artists featured in the article include Singaporean artist Chu Hao Pei, whose "Nasi Goreng Diplomacy" (2023) explores fried rice as cultural diplomacy; Taiwanese Paiwan artist Chang En-Man, who examines African snails as invasive species turned Indigenous delicacy; and Martinique-born artist Jean-François Boclé, who uses colombo stew to discuss indentured labor histories. The article discusses how artists across the Indo-Pacific region use food to examine colonial legacies, migration, and cultural identity, with examples from Réunion Island, Indonesia, Taiwan, Canada, and the Caribbean. These works reveal how food systems reflect power dynamics, knowledge appropriation, and resistance in post-colonial contexts.