Tag Archives: Blackbirding

Asia Oceania

Blackbirding: legacy of anger in Solomon Islands

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There is still anger in Solomon Islands over Blackbirding, an academic says.

About 60,000 Pacific Islanders were taken from their mainly Melanesian homelands to Australia in the 1800s to work on plantations. Photo: State Library of Queensland
About 60,000 Pacific Islanders were taken from their mainly Melanesian homelands to Australia in the 1800s to work on plantations. Photo: State Library of Queensland

David Gegeo, the director of research at Solomon Islands National University, said thousands of Solomon Islanders were kidnapped and later contracted to work in Australia in the 1800s, a practice known as Blackbirding.

Its legacy includes intergenerational anger that could be relieved, if the complete history of the practise were taught in schools, Dr Gegeo said.

“There was grieving over people leaving but also there was anger when people were taken. People still talk about those stories with a certain degree of pain, anger and frustration,” he said.

“‘What did we do to deserve this? We were taken away to develop someone elses country, economy’. Yes, there is still some anger.”

From listening to oral histories, Dr Gegeo said Blackbirding had disrupted social fabric in Solomon’s villagers and caused disputes.

“For example, Fiu harbour on Malaita where I come from, after young men were taken, a chief, or what we call in Kwara’ae a fata’abu, would curse the harbour because people were kidnapped from the harbour. Anybody who was seen in the harbour, even just walking along the beach would be killed. And there were bounties,” he said.

David Gegeo
David Gegeo Photo: Solomon Islands National University

“Another impact: two friends went to the beach and one of them was taken away. The parents, or the tribal group of the kid that was taken away, would be angry and would demand compensation from his people, saying ‘it was your son who took my son to the beach that day and he was kidnapped. If it hadn’t been for his friendship with your son this would not have happened’. So sometimes compensation, killing took place because of it.”

“Also, the fact that young men who are supposed to be in the village and doing tribal responsibilities were taken away. It left a gap and women suddenly had to step into men’s roles because able bodied men were taken away.”

The school curriculum in the Solomons only focuses on the so-called benefits of Blackbirding, Dr Gegeo said, the result of history being “deemphasised” by the “colonial regime” as a means of modernising the country.

“It’s taught under Social Studies. The bit about Blackbirding is very highly selective in that it emphasised mostly what you might call the benefits of blackbirding,” he said.

“People coming back with guns and knives and axes, Solomons Pidgin and Chritianity but not the other side of it which is the suffering and the agony that Blackbirded Solomon Islanders went through.

“I believe in presenting a balanced picture of the phenomenon. Painful as it may be.”

Source: https://www.rnz.co.nz

Melanesia

Descendants of Solomons’ slaves looking forward to dual citizenship

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The descendants of Solomon Islands’ slave labourers living in Fiji say they hope dual citizenship legislation being proposed in the Solomons will help them reconnect with long lost relatives.

In the mid-nineteenth century more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Niue were coerced to work on canefields in Australia and Fiji through trickery and kidnapping, a practice known as Blackbirding.

A Solomon Islands government delegation doing consultations in Melanesia this week on dual citizenship met with leaders of descendants of blackbirded Solomon Islanders living in Fiji.

Chris Waiwori from the Dual-Citizenship Taskforce
Chris Waiwori from the Dual-Citizenship Taskforce Photo: PM Press Office

The secretary of the dual citizenship task force, Chris Waiwori, described the meeting as an emotional one during which community leaders told the delegation they appreciated the move towards dual citizenship and saw it as another avenue for them to try and mend their broken links to Solomon Islands.

The taskforce is now in PNG for the final leg of its consultations having earlier also visited Vanuatu.

A final round of local consultations on the dual citizenship bill will be done when the taskforce returns to Honiara before a final draft of the bill is submitted to cabinet.

The Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare had previously said he aimed to have the bill tabled in parliament early next year.

Source: RNZ

Uncategorized

Blackbirding’s dark secrets revealed

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Indira Stewart – indira.stewart@radionz.co.nz

More than 150 years on, many descendants of the victims of blackbirders still don’t know about the dark history which brought around 60,000 Pacific Islanders to Australia.

About 60,000 Pacific Islanders were taken from their mainly Melanesian homelands to Australia in the 1800s to work on plantations. Photo: State Library of Queensland
About 60,000 Pacific Islanders were taken from their mainly Melanesian homelands to Australia in the 1800s to work on plantations. Photo: State Library of Queensland

The short film “Blackbird” has been helping to raise awareness about Australia’s blackbirding history which saw mainly Melanesians kidnapped and sent to work on plantations in the 1800s.

The film was the culmination of a long personal journey for Australian Solomon Island filmmaker, Amie Batalibasi, who wanted to find out more about the experiences of Pacific Islanders in Australia who were blackbirded.

Some people just died of heartbreak Amie Batalibasi

The late 19th century practice of “blackbirding” involved recruiting, often by force and deception, labourers from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji to work on the sugar and cotton plantations of Queensland.

Although three of her ancestors were blackbirded, she said she knew very little about the history of the trade.

“This history is one that’s very much been shoved under the carpet in Australia, but what does remain is this oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation.

“And you know, I was very privileged to have worked with the South Sea Islander community in and around Brisbane, so through that, I was able to hear some of those stories.”

The cast of the film "Blackbird" Photo: Supplied
The cast of the film “Blackbird” Photo: Supplied

The cast of the film “Blackbird” Photo: Supplied

One of the film’s actors, Jeremy Bobby, said he also had no knowledge about Australia’s blackbirding history.

“To be quite honest, everyone that I speak to, and I say the term ‘blackbird’ – no one knows a clue and this is like, in Australia, this is in Brisbane.

All my friends in Brisbane, my family that I speak to, they really don’t know anything about it and it shows how much has been shoved under the rug, how much we actually haven’t been told.”

The main characters in "Blackbird", Solomon Islander siblings Rosa and Kiko. They were blackbirded to work on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland in the late 1800s. Photo: Supplied
The main characters in “Blackbird”, Solomon Islander siblings Rosa and Kiko. They were blackbirded to work on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland in the late 1800s. Photo: Supplied

The main characters in “Blackbird”, Solomon Islander siblings Rosa and Kiko. They were blackbirded to work on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland in the late 1800s. Photo: Supplied

Blackbird tells the story of Solomon Islander siblings, Rosa and Kiko, who were kidnapped from their island home to work on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland in the late 1800s.

The stories shared by other South Sea Islanders who shed light on the experiences of their ancestors helped Ms Batalibasi during the film’s production.

“It was a lot about hardships and how people came over and a lot about the loss of culture and how hard it was and a lot about how people died as well.

Many of them died of sickness and actually one thing that I did hear was, many people mentioned that some people just died of heartbreak of just being taken and being in an alien environment and having such harsh conditions.”

Ms Batalibasi said question and answer sessions held after some of the film’s screenings allowed other descendants of Islanders who were blackbirded to share their stories as well.

“Blackbird” is showing at the New Zealand International Film FestivalNZIFF 2016 – the Widescreen previewThe Art of Etiquette – film festivalsThe Pacific beatFilmmakers reaching out over the PacificNZ film hopes to start West Papua conversation

Source: RNZ

Asia Oceania

5,000 expected for Solomons blackbirding anniversary

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Descendants of a Malaitan man captured during the blackbirding era are preparing to welcome his Australian family members to Solomon Islands for the 150th anniversary of his capture.

John Kwailiu Fatanowna was taken from the Rakwane tribe of the Fataleka region of east Malaita to work on a sugar plantation in Queensland.

The president of the organising committee says for many of the 60 members of that branch of the family coming from Mackay at the end of the month it is the first time they have left Australia.

Enoch Mani Ilisia says local Rakwane people have been busy over the past few months putting in a new water supply, building toilets, houses and ensuring there are enough swamp taro, potatoes and cassava to feed everyone.

He told Annell Husband there will be more than 5,000 people taking part in the two-day commemoration, with presentations and opportunities to hear the chiefs tell the tribe’s history.

ENOCH MANI ILISIA: Unlike today, when we keep our documents and information in computer hard drives and whatever, back home they’ve stored it in the human brain. The chiefs there are very good at recollecting past information by word of mouth. And it’s kept only with the first borns. And the first borns are the ones who have the right to store that information and pass it orally. Due to instances we come across where people try to steal information and pass on information that is confidential to the community.

ANNELL HUSBAND: And that oral tradition, is that still alive and well, that’s still going well?

AH: That’s right. We have in our village [Indistinct]. It’s simply a house that all the men go to. The ladies are not allowed to go there. And even strangers, too, because in there, that’s where all the confidential information is passed on from our chiefs, our first borns, to the general tribesmen and the younger men, as well.

EML: I guess it could bring up a lot of emotion for people, coming together like this?

AH: A few weeks ago one of the tribal members came over from Mackay. He met with us, the committee members, in preparation for the grand event. We met and we exchanged money. It’s a moving event. [Indistinct] I was there with him. They embraced each other for a long time. It was a very moving experience.

Source: RNZ