For my family, satay is one of the most tangible reminders of the Indo past and present – a Dutch colonial entanglement with Indonesia. As I skewer satay with different family members, we embark on a journey through generations, space and time, raising questions of personhood and belonging: What does being Indo mean today? Does Indo personhood and food fade over time, or can it be transformed, reimagined?
Skewering Smoke / Rijgen van Rook is an filmic exploration through cooking, black-and-white pictures, and hand-drawn animations – remembering the past while creating new understandings of who we are in the present. In this process, my family and I wander and doubt – but always come back to the food that brings us together.
Bio
After growing up on the island of Texel in the Netherlands, Josephine Hercules studied design before completing a pre-master’s and master’s in Visual Ethnography. With a dual background in design and ethnography, she approaches the research and communication of lived experiences from multiple angles—drawing on feminist, postcolonial, and multimodal perspectives and methods. Beyond her work, she has a love for music, house plants, and good food.
