Tropical cosmopolitanism and outdoor food markets in (post)colonial Australia

Abstract

In this article I offer a critical examination of Darwin's contemporary food markets and, in particular, the Mindil Beach Night Markets, as sites of ‘tropical cosmopolitanism’. To do so, I focus on the intersection of place and food to illuminate what it reveals about the rich and complex history of cultural exchange on this small city site and, in turn, what this may reveal about contemporary postcolonial multiculture. As a high profile and significant place, both geographically and socially, Mindil Beach furnishes the researcher with a rich cultural text through which the various affordances of space and food reflect broader politico-cultural thinking. Within such a framework I consider the erasures and silences, presences and absences contributing to the degree to which the multiculturally rich Mindil hawker stalls can be considered demonstrative of a national vision of cosmopolitanism that is truly postcolonial, and hence more than simply ‘banal cosmopolitanism’ (Beck 2007).

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Lisa Law for first suggesting ‘tropical cosmopolitanism’ as a useful concept for understanding contemporary lifestyle politics in the tropical zones of the industrialized world.

Notes

1. The ‘Creative Tropical City’ project was funded by the Australian Research Council (LP0667445) and included financial and in-kind contributions from Tourism NT, the Northern Territory Government Department of Natural Resources, the Environment and the Arts (NRETA), and Darwin City Council.

2. Although this vision is somewhat problematic given the racial mix of these attendees especially among the local population which is a little more mixed befitting the city's history.