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Polynesian Foodways

Regional

⚠ AN UMBRELLA OVER SOVEREIGN NATIONS, NOT A CUISINE. Polynesia is the great triangle from Hawai‘i to Rapa Nui to Aotearoa, and its peoples are closely related — the languages are mutually recognisable in a way Melanesia’s are not, and the settlement sequence out of Samoa and Tonga is among the best-reconstructed migrations in archaeology. Shared: the EARTH OVEN (umu, imu, ahima‘a, ‘umu ti); TARO as the prestige starch and the subject of genealogy and ceremony; BREADFRUIT, yam, banana, COCONUT at every stage of ripeness; pounded starch pastes — poi in Hawai‘i, popoi elsewhere; RAW FISH cured in citrus or coconut cream — poisson cru, ‘ota ‘ika, oka i‘a, kokoda, which is one dish under many names; the PIG roasted whole for a feast; and KAVA in the west of the triangle. ⚠ AND THE NATIONS ARE DISTINCT: Samoa and Tonga are independent and ancient polities — Tonga was never colonised — Hawai‘i is an illegally overthrown kingdom now a US state, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna are French, the Cook Islands and Niue are in free association with New Zealand, Tokelau is a New Zealand territory, Tuvalu is independent, and Rapa Nui is Chilean. None of that is incidental to what they eat.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Polynesians community documented
  • Samoans community documented
  • Tongans community documented
  • Tahitians community documented
  • Kānaka Maoli community documented

Languages: Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Niuean, Tokelauan, Tuvalu, East Uvean, Māori, English, French

What is recorded

  • Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia are recorded as nineteenth-century European classifications criticised by Pacific scholars, retained here as umbrellas over sovereign nations rather than as cuisines. Polynesian languages are documented as closely related and the settlement sequence out of Samoa and Tonga as among the best-reconstructed migrations in archaeology. Raw fish cured in citrus or coconut cream is recorded as one dish under many names — poisson cru, ‘ota ‘ika, oka i‘a, kokoda. The political status of each nation differs materially and is recorded. documented
  • Settlement of remote Oceania out of Samoa and Tonga, reaching the Society Islands, then Hawai‘i, Rapa Nui and finally Aotearoa. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • part of Pacific Islands Foodways documented

    ⚠ An umbrella over sovereign nations, not a cuisine. The three Pacific regions are nineteenth-century European classifications and Pacific scholars have criticised them as such.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • originates from Māori Foodways documented

    Arrival around 1250-1300 CE from central Polynesia, carrying the canoe plants into a far colder climate where taro struggled and breadfruit and coconut could not grow at all.

  • part of Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Wallis and Futuna documented
  • part of Hawaiian Foodways documented

    ⚠ NATIVE HAWAIIAN FOOD AND PLANTATION "LOCAL FOOD" ARE TWO CUISINES. Poi, kalo and the imu are Polynesian; the plate lunch, Spam musubi and saimin come from plantation labour migration, not from Kānaka Maoli tradition.

  • part of Samoan Foodways documented
  • part of Tahitian and Mā‘ohi Foodways documented
  • part of Tongan Foodways documented

    ⚠ The one Pacific nation never colonised, and still a kingdom — which is why the feast is an instrument of a functioning aristocracy.

  • related to Hāngī documented

    The same technology as the umu, imu, lovo and mumu, adapted to colder ground and different stone.

  • related to Pacific Foodways in New Zealand documented

Regional cuisines

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.