South Sea Islanders, transported to Australia as a cheap source of labour, worked in the development and establishment of the new Queensland sugar industry. They came predominately from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands; but also New Caledonia, Fiji, Gilbert Islands, New Ireland, and Milne Bay Provinces of Papua New Guinea. These peoples were collectively referred to time Kanakas, but we prefer to be called South Sea Islanders as the word 'kanaka' is considered derogatory by Islander communities in the Pacific and Australia. Between 1. 86. 3 and 1. South Sea Islanders were brought to Australia to work in the sugar industry. They arrived at several major ports along the eastern coastline including Brisbane, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Bowen, Townsville, Innisfail and Cairns. Recruitment of sugar slaves. One of the most controversial aspects of the labour trade centres on how Islanders were . Official documentation conflicts with oral history accounts that have been passed down through generations of South Sea Islanders. Were they forced, coerced, deceived or persuaded to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland? Pearl, to delight a prince's day, Flawlessly set in gold so fair In all the East, I dare to say, I have not found one to compare. So round, so radiant in array, So small, so smooth her contours were, Wherever I. Steeped in Scripture “Mary Don’t You Weep” is an old African American spiritual. Predating the Civil War, the song offered religious comfort to American slaves while they were held in bondage. The song’s importance did. The answer to that is that all these methods were used. Some Islanders were kidnapped or . Older generations recall stories of ancestors being sold like cattle at the shipping docks in Queensland. When the first Islanders arrived in 1. The Polynesian Labourers Act 1. Pacific Islanders into Queensland. Its aim was to stop the practice of kidnapping of Islanders or . This provided a monitoring system for labour vessels and indentured labour. It aimed to regulate and control the process to ensure paid labour for Islanders but maintained financial benefits of a slavery system. Essentially cheap labour was provided by coerced workers who could not resign. South Sea Islanders were restricted to working in the sugar industry by legislation that stated they had to work within a 3. Harsh working conditions. Regardless of how they were recruited the exploitation of Islanders was widespread. THE LEGACY OF THE SLAVE TRADE. Please click on a bulleted heading to toggle the content. Manning, Patrick, The Impact of the Slave Trade on the Societies of West and Central Africa in Tibbles, Anthony (ed.), Transatlantic. 3 new mooring boats under construction. 3 new mooring boats are currently under construction at the shipyard. One boat in 9-meter version will be delivered to a French mooring station; the 2 other boats in 7.80-meter version. All; Title; ISBN; Author name; Browse; About the Press. Contact; History; Mission; Rights & Permissions; Careers; News. 1492: Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas. 1576: Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximilian II, as Holy Roman Emperor. 1609: The song “Three Blind Mice” is published in. A few Islanders worked under formal contracts established by the Queensland Master and Servants Act 1. All were controlled by draconian legislation. Islanders were made to sign three year work contracts. Many could not read and a signature was a fingerprint. While white labourers earned .
Men, women and children had to work long hours and in harsh conditions akin to slavery. They were required to clear heavy rainforest and scrub, and to plant, maintain and harvest the cane. Social conditions. Despite the controls over their lives, Islanders maintained their cultural connections even while working as indentured labourers. South Sea Islanders usually lived in some kind of barracks style housing on the sugar cane farms. Some preferred to live in traditional grass hut style accommodation, with separate sleeping arrangements for women and men. The village layout was similar to those in the islands, families together and single men’s quarters separated away from the families. South Sea Islanders were vulnerable to disease and poor health care in Australia. In their new home of Queensland, South Sea Islander men, women and children were exposed to people who carried diseases that the Islanders would have had little or no prior contact with in their home islands. As a consequence Islanders caught European diseases. Combined with a culturally and nutritionally inadequate diet of beef or mutton, potatoes, bread, tea and sugar, this was a recipe for an Islander health disaster. The Islanders had to work while sick and because there was little or inadequate health care, many died in the paddocks or at the farms. The result was a very high death rate for South Sea Islanders compared to that of Europeans. Australian South Sea Islanders were segregated from mainstream society and excluded from services. Eventually, in the 1. South Sea Islanders in Maryborough, Ingham and Mackay. Some hospitals created separate . But it was the White Australia Policy and the desire to protect jobs for white Australians that finally ended the Labour trade. In 1. 90. 1 the Labour Trade formally ceased and the Australian government took steps to deport South Sea Islanders to their home islands. This was impossible and undesirable for many, and resulted in more hardships and discrimination for those who had made Queensland home.
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