This paper analyses the dynamics of food exchange among Cook Islanders. The majority of Cook Islanders live abroad (primarily in New Zealand and Australia), familial and community relationships are maintained by frequent visits to and from the Cook Islands. For many Cook Islanders, the difference between home and abroad is signified through food. Its lack in New Zealand is contrasted with the bounty of home, bounty of food, and the bounty of sustaining caring relationships. As a result, when Cook Islanders from home visit family abroad, they take large quantities of local food with them. This paper explores the affective materiality of food that travels between Cook Islands

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This article is about a Drag Queen competition I attended on Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in 1998.1 I am returning to it because it continues to perplex me-much as it did the audience on the night it was held. It was a show that combined elements of "Western" drag shows and beauty pageants, and "local" styles of cross-dressing and performing. This combination in itself is not unusual; drag queen competitions that meld local and nonlocal styles of drag performance have been held on Rarotonga since at least the 1980s. This particular show included performances that resulted in the show being judged by many in the audience as less than entertaining and, at times, highly distasteful. These sentiments were summed up in the aftermath, as the unanimous reaction to the competition was, "It was stink."This show was received in a strikingly different way from the many other drag and cross-dressing performances I attended in the Cook Islands, which are generally viewed as extremely humorous and enjoyed by diverse audiences. These performances traverse many contexts: fundraising events for church groups, sports competitions, Independence Day celebrations, and Christmas dance competitions. Usually they involve male groups in female costumes dancing to intricately choreographed performances of local female dances. Solo cross-dressing performances are most common at drag shows or in spontaneous "clowning" among friends at nightclubs or parties.