colonial

This is the little-known story of exploited foreign workers, told by Auntie Joyce Lea. "I am a proud South Sea woman. My dad was blackbirded, from Tanna island in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). Put to work in the cane fields in Bundaberg, as slave labour. There was no money, they worked for their food, and I think about this quite often, how hard it must have been for them," said Lea. "He told us the story of how he was lured on the boats with fake jewelry. They took jewelry onto the islands and showed the Kanaka people on the island that if they wanted more they only had to come out to the boats. This is the story my Dad used to tell us and then when they got their quota or the number of people they wanted on a boat they would just pull up anchor and then they sailed and he was put to work into the canefields of Bundaberg." They came from 80 Pacific islands, mainly in Vanuatu and the Solomons. The 40-year-long indentured labour program was the backbone of Queensland's colonial-era sugar industry. Professor Clive Moore from the University of Queensland is a leading historian of the Pacific. "I don't think there is any immigrant group in Australia who were worse treated than Australia South Sea Islanders, and If you think about it right through the process, there are only people who were at least partly kidnapped and brought here illegally, that's the Australian South Sea Islanders", said Professor Moore. "The death rate was higher than any immigrant group to ever come to Australia, and are a scandal, and they're the only immigrant group that ever had an act of Parliament passed by the federal government to totally deport them. You put those three things together and it explains a lot of the problems we have a century later in the South Sea Islander community, " he added. Source: www.sbs.com.au/news/article/south-sea-islanders-mark-suga...

I believe that the term "Joss" has been found to be a derogatory term.

Marjorie Earl When describing historic images in our collection we use descriptive information that might accompany the photograph, as in this case as well as more contemporary subject headings. The term "Joss" does now have deragatory overtones, but it was the term in common usage at the time this photograph was taken, when joss houses were part of the architecture and culture of the Chinese community in Queensland. Our catalogue records also reflect the term "Chinese Temple" which we have added as a tag to this record. Thanks for your comment.

"Schafthausen, Germany" is more likely "Schaffhausen, Switzerland". The picture is of the Rheinfall.

Lovely album page! Schaffhausen is in Switzerland, not Germany. Greetings from Brit in 🇨🇭