Sweet Grief is an autobiographical, experimental and fragmented account of the writer's final months with her father. The narrative is centred around a shared food ritual-eating 'millefeuille'-which ...becomes almost impossible after her father experiences a stroke. The piece is anchored by the human need to swallow. It draws together food, family, memory, grief, love, a global pandemic and the impact of bureaucratic decision-making. This reflection is multi-layered, like the millefeuille. Her father's stroke occurred during the COVID pandemic when Western Australia effectively closed its border for 697 days, requiring the author to quarantine, twice. It explores the 'messy' emotions around food when a loved one must learn to swallow again and portrays the way in which food plays a 'sticky' role in familial relationships.
In a study on children, families and food messages in Victoria, Australia, we utilised a multi-methods approach that included visual data produced by primary-school aged children. Working with 50 ...families, we provided each child investigator with an iPad for 3–4 days and invited them to photograph family food events important to them. The analysis of visual data alongside child and family interviews revealed the diverse meaning-making practices children draw on to understand food practices at home and school. These research practices aspired to locate the researchers and children as co-creators. In this paper, we reflect on the challenges and (dis)comfort we faced as researchers as the implications of co-creation emerged and we engaged with children’s voices, photos and families inside their homes. The multi-methods approach supported a comprehensive and rich engagement with commensality and pleasure in food practices at home for children, but illuminated the complex emotional and intellectual terrain of such research practices.
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