Paper short abstract:

This paper will present the ways in which national identity is performed among the Iranian diaspora in New Zealand by having a look at their food practices and discourses within a celebratory context.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present the ways in which national identity is performed among the Iranian diaspora in New Zealand by having a look at their food practices and discourses within a celebratory context. One of the most evident meeting point of these three fields (diaspora, national identity and food) is the celebration of the ancient Persian festival of Yalda, celebrated today as a national event with many customs, traditions and rituals associated with food and eating, all of which carrying great symbolic significance. The paper shows how Iranians in New Zealand practice and sometimes 'invent' Yalda food traditions to gain a sense of belonging and 'Iranianness' as well as re-produce and re-define their national identity, thus contributing to an existing scholarship in cultural food studies in diasporic and transnational contexts among one of the least studied populations in the field of Food Studies.