South Sea Islander

:For general context see White Australia Policy.

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The Australian label South Sea Islanders refers to the Australian descendants of people from the more than 80 islands in the Western Pacific:

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• Melanesia: mainly the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides)
• Polynesia and Micronesia: the Loyalty Islands, Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu)

who were recruited (some by kidnapping or blackbirding) to labour in the sugar cane fields of Queensland, Australia from the 1860s over a period of 40 years. As stated in the article on the history of Vanuatu

Related Topics:
Blackbirding - Queensland - Australia - 1860s - History of Vanuatu

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:During the 1860s, planters in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoa Islands, in need of laborers, encouraged a long-term indentured labor trade called blackbirding. At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the Islands worked abroad.

Related Topics:
Australia - Fiji - New Caledonia - Samoa - Island

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These people were generally referred to as Kanakas.

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With time, owing to intermarriage, many Australian South Sea Islanders also claim a mixed ancestry including Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders and immigrants from the South Pacific Islands.

Related Topics:
Aboriginals - Torres Strait Islanders - Pacific Islands

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Of the 62,000 South Sea Islanders recruited the majority were repatriated by the Australian Government in the period between 1906-08 under the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86), legislation related to the White Australia Policy.

Related Topics:
Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 - White Australia Policy

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The question of how many Islanders were blackbirded is unknown and remains controversial. The question:

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:Were Islanders legally recruited, persuaded, deceived, coerced or forced to leave their homes and travel by ship to Queensland?

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is difficult. 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 tended to relate to the first 10?15 years of the trade.

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South Sea Islander: See also ►