South Sea Islanders

Under the Polynesian Labourers Act 1868 (Qld), recruited labour was indentured for three years in exchange for a small wage of £6 per year as well as rations, accommodation and clothing. Employers were required to deposit their employees’ wages into a Government Savings Bank account.{{Cite SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/sugar-slaves|title=Sugar slaves|author=Marg Powell|date=15 April 2021|website=Blogs|access-date=19 May 2021}}

The majority were repatriated by the Australian Government in the period between 1906 and 1908 under the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901,{{cite web|url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86|title=Documenting Democracy: Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (Cth)|publisher=Foundingdocs.gov.au|location=National Archives of Australia|access-date=14 October 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026225820/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86|archive-date=26 October 2009|df=dmy-all}} a piece of legislation related to the White Australia policy.{{cite book |last1= Lawrence |first1= David Russell |title= The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific|date= October 2014|publisher=ANU Press |isbn=9781925022032|page=257|chapter= Chapter 9 The plantation economy |chapter-url= http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p298111/pdf/ch092.pdf}}{{cite book |last1= Lawrence |first1= David Russell |title= The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific|date= October 2014|publisher=ANU Press |isbn=9781925022032|pages=295–296 |chapter= Chapter 10 The critical question of labour |chapter-url= http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p298111/pdf/ch102.pdf}}Stefanie Affeldt: Consuming Whiteness. Australian Racism and the ‘White Sugar’ Campaign. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2014, pp. 152–188. There was resistance to repatriation,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14531561 |title=KANAKA DEPORTATION. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 June 1903 |access-date=15 November 2015 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} and controversy regarding the manner in which it was done.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19489098 |title=KANAKA DEPORTATION. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=18 December 1906 |access-date=15 November 2015 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Those exempted from repatriation, along with a number of others who escaped deportation, remained in Australia to form the basis of what is today Australia's largest non-indigenous black ethnic group. Today, the descendants of those who remained are officially referred to as South Sea Islanders. A 1992 census of South Sea Islanders reported around 10,000 descendants living in Queensland. Fewer than 3,500 were reported in the 2001 Australian census.Tracey Flanagan, Meredith Wilkie, and Susanna Iuliano. [http://www.hreoc.gov.au/racial_discrimination/forum/Erace/south_sea.html "Australian South Sea Islanders: A Century of Race Discrimination under Australian Law"], Australian Human Rights Commission.

The question of how many Islanders were "blackbirded" is unknown and remains controversial. The extent to which Islanders were recruited legally, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced to leave their homes and travel to Queensland is difficult to evaluate and also controversial. Official documents and accounts from the period often conflict with the oral tradition passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tend to relate to the first ten or so years of the trade.{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

With time, owing to intermarriage, many Australian South Sea Islanders also claim a mixed ancestry, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, along with immigrants from the South Pacific Islands and European Australians.

Blackbirded and recruited islanders were generally referred to as Kanakas (from ‘man’ in Hawaiian{{cite web | title=Etymology, origin and meaning of kanaka by etymonline | website=Etymonline | date=28 September 2017 | url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/kanaka | access-date=7 November 2023}}). However many Islander descendants now regard the term as pejorative and an insulting reminder of their ancestors' exploitation at the hands of the British and the white Australians, and it is now regarded in Australian English as an offensive term.Macquarie Dictionary (Fourth Edition), 2005, p. 774{{cite web|url=http://www.yourdictionary.com/kanaka|title=Kanaka dictionary definition - Kanaka defined|website=www.yourdictionary.com}}

In recent generations, facing many similar forms of discrimination in Australia as Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, Australian South Sea Islanders have been prominent figures in civil rights and politics. Faith Bandler, Evelyn Scott, and Bonita Mabo (widow of Eddie Mabo) are prominent Indigenous activists who are also descendants of South Sea Island plantation workers.

Stephen Andrew, who represents Katter's Australian Party in the Queensland Parliament, was the first South Sea Islander to be elected to parliament.{{cite web |date=9 September 2024 |title=One Nation reject Stephen Andrew joins Katter’s Australian Party |url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/one-nation-reject-stephen-andrew-joins-katters-australian-party/news-story/82147ab13083e3f4e90267111ba6569e?amp&nk=88e607327a2f970d23935507fab2f90d-1725873554 |access-date=9 September 2024 |website=Courier Mail |publisher=Madura McCormack}}

Federal MP Terry Young's grandfather was a South Sea Islander.{{cite news|url=https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fc53753a5-4ecd-4871-a577-d7549f791ed2%2F0051%22|title=First speech|work=Hansard|publisher=Parliament of Australia|access-date=25 March 2021}}

Another area Australian South Sea Islanders have excelled in is sport, especially the game of rugby league. Australian international representatives Sam Backo, Mal Meninga, Gorden Tallis and Wendell Sailor are all members of the Australian South Sea Islander community.

Gail Mabo, daughter of Bonita and Eddie Mabo, is a prominent visual artist.

For many years, Queensland's South Sea Islander communities sought acknowledgement for past treatment, and recognition as a distinct cultural group. After decades of community advocacy, the Commonwealth Government finally recognised that distinction on August 25, 1994. State Library of Queensland holds several collections pertaining to the history of Australian South Sea Islanders in Queensland, two significant collections pertain to their long fight for recognition.{{SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/australian-south-sea-islander-collections|title=Australian South Sea Islander collections|date=12 May 2022|author(s)=Robyn Hamilton|accessdate=27 May 2022}}

The Australian South Sea Islanders United Council Records 1975-2008, 2021 (Acc. 28617) includes documents, research papers, photographs, recorded interviews and other material relating to the work of the Australian South Sea Islanders United Council (ASSIUC) from the mid 1970s. Formed by a group of first descendants at Tweed Heads in 1975, the ASSIUC was the first national body to represent Australian South Sea Islanders, advocating for national recognition and promoting cultural awareness. A second iteration of the ASSIUC was re-registered in Townsville in 1991 and grew to fourteen branches including two in New South Wales. This body was instrumental in bringing communities together and advocating for change.{{Cite web |title=28617 Australian South Sea Islanders United Council Records 1975-2008, 2021 |url=http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/f/1oppkg1/slq_alma21148542640002061 |access-date=27 May 2022 |website=State Library of Queensland OneSearch Catalogue}}

The Australian South Sea Islanders 150 Commemoration and Festival 2013 Papers (Acc. 29744) also include documents such as meeting minutes and correspondence relating to the Australian South Sea Islanders Secretariat Inc., and photographs and interviews conducted by Nic Maclellan on 13 August 2013 at the Australian South Sea Islander 150th Anniversary event at Ormiston House, Brisbane.{{Cite web |title=29744 Australian South Sea Islanders 150 Commemoration and Festival 2013 Papers 2013 |url=https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/guide/29744/details |access-date=27 May 2022 |website=State Library of Queensland OneSearch Catalogue}}

• White Australia Policy
• Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)
• Blackbirding

{{Reflist}}

State Library of Queensland's [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/11l3i0/alma99184084274302061 Nasuven Enares Oral History and Digital Story]. Nasuven Enares is a direct descendant of Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI), people who were forcibly brought to Australia at the turn of the century as indentured labour

{{SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/sugar-slaves|title=Sugar slaves|date=15 April 2021|author(s)=Marg Powell|accessdate=19 May 2021}}

{{Commons category|South Sea Islanders}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813174211/http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/About_the_department/publications/multicultural/Australian_South_Sea_Islander_Training_Package/history/identity/ Background and history of the South Sea Islanders] at the Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet website.
• [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/exhibitions/australian-south-sea-islanders Australian South Sea Islanders] - State Library of Queensland
• [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/exhibitions/plantation-voices Plantation Voices] - State Library of Queensland exhibition
• [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/australian-south-sea-islander-collections Australian South Sea Islander collections] - State Library of Queensland
• [https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/sugar-slaves Sugar Slaves] - State Library of Queensland
• [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/11l3i0/alma99297443402061 Australian South Sea Islanders 150 Commemoration and Festival 2013 Papers 2013] - State Library of Queensland
• [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99286173402061 Australian South Sea Islanders United Council Records 1975-2008] - State Library of Queensland
• [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99183607717202061 The old place: Lot 71, Bli Bli, Queensland] - State Library of Queensland. Interviews commissioned for the 2019 Queensland exhibition Plantation Voices: Contemporary conversations with Australian South Sea islanders.

{{Countries and territories of Oceania}}

Category: Australian people of Melanesian descent

Category:Oceanian diaspora in Australia

Category:Ethnic groups in Australia

Category:Ethnic groups in Oceania

Category:Labour history of Australia

Category:Slavery in Australia

Category:Slavery in Oceania

Category:Slavery in the British Empire