Shane Finlay

🌍 To explore our global March theme, LOCAL, we will welcome Shane Finlay on stage to connect it to food in his talk “One Plate, Many Cultures.”

🍜 Shane Finlay is the founder of Da Po Takeaway in Gothenburg, where he brings the bold, soulful flavours of Asian street food to the west coast of Sweden. Originally from Canada, Shane has lived and cooked across continents, and this journey shapes everything he makes.

🥢His talk traces the surprisingly moving origin story of the Hawaiian mixed plate, a meal born in the 1880s when plantation workers from Japan, China, the Philippines, Portugal and South Korea sat down in the same field, opened their lunch boxes and started sharing. No common language. No plan. Just hunger, curiosity, and the slow discovery that food could make strangers feel like neighbours.

✨ Shane will explore how that simple act of sharing a plate became one of history’s most quietly radical gestures of belonging, and what it still has to teach us about what it means to feel LOCAL, wherever you are.

🏡 And what better place to explore local and celebrate diverse cultures in Gothenburg than at International House Gothenburg?
At this month’s event, we’re also celebrating alongside our long-term partner International House Gothenburg, as we host our 10th event there, while they mark five years of building community, support, and opportunity for internationals in the city. Join us for this special #IHG5Years edition

🌎 The global theme was chosen by our Santos chapter in Brazil. Check out this video to learn more about the idea behind it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRpEHCRICsQ

📖 Curious to learn more about Shane?
Last year he was interviewed at International House Gothenburg by Invest in Gothenburg, where he shared more about his journey and experience building a life in Sweden:https://www.investingothenburg.com/news/all-news/my-swedish-integration-journey