The one certainty in life is
death. At 79, Australia’s cherished journalist Ray Martin knows this well, and
as he reflects on the topic for the upcoming SBS documentary *Ray Martin: The
Last Goodbye*, he muses about what his loved ones might say about his eating
habits at his wake.
“He ate whatever was put in
front of him,” Martin shares with SBS. “Most times, he enjoyed it, and that’s
the truth. Food is very much part of who we are.”
All over his career as an
international journalist, Martin has experienced an array of culinary
offerings—from sheep's eyes in Saudi Arabia to haggis in Scotland and bowls of
rice in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, following the destructive 2004 Boxing Day
tsunami.
“Around 200,000 people were killed in Indonesia during that
natural disaster,” Martin recalls. “Yet, on the ground, where everything was carry
off, people were still offering us rice from their own bowls. Even in their own
starvation, people felt the need to give food. That is just human nature.”
In his new three-part
investigative series, which inspects the taboo subject of death, Martin has
come to see the profound role that food plays, both in life and in the rituals neighbouring
death.
“Food is part of us ; we are
social creatures, and eating is a key part of our social life. So food plays a notable
role in our lives, and even in our death.”
When people recall us after
we’re gone, they’ll often reflect on the food experiences they shared with us.
“At funerals, aside from
saying ‘what a nice person they were’ or ‘what a character they were ,’ people
will also say ‘he loved his oysters’ or ‘he loved a beer.’ We don’t just
remember people for their political or devout beliefs, but also for what they
enjoyed eating. Food is deeply intertwined with who we are.”
