How Montreal's Super Boat People reframes Cambodian, Laotian & Vietnamese narratives

In Rosemont-Petite-Patrie, mortar meets pestle in a cooking workshop hosted by Super Boat People, where participants pound lemongrass, garlic, and galangal into kroeung—the aromatic paste that forms the foundation of Cambodian cuisine. The air fills with fragrant hits of citrus and spice, and there’s a sense of cultural reconnection taking place by way of the kitchen.

"It's serious on some points, but also very unserious or unpretentious in the way we do things," says Rémy Chhem, who co-founded Super Boat People with his partner Marie-Ève Samson.

The collective's name itself—a deliberate reclamation of the term once used to describe refugees fleeing Southeast Asia—carries that same blend of reverence and irreverence.