Tag Archives: Australian South Sea Islanders

Shared history honoured at Veresdale

Shared history honoured at Veresdale

Emotions ran high on Saturday when a sculpture honouring the history between Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI), the Mununjali community and Veresdale landholders was unveiled.

The six metre high two-tonne sculpture was hand-crafted from a fallen 200 year-old iron bark log, that was found at Mt Lindesay, by artist Kakae Pakoa who lovingly worked on the project for three months.

Mr Pakoa said his design reflected the past, the present and the future of the area. “The footprints symbolise the walk the South Sea Islanders did from Redbank Plains to Beaudesert in 1863, when it took them two days to get here to start work,” he said. “They also symbolise the future-moving forward and moving together.”

Mr Pakoa’s wife Natalie said the unveiling of the sculpture reinforced the love and healing she felt after her community’s history with the area was accepted and acknowledged by the Mununjali people. “Now when I come to Beaudesert I feel love in my heart, it is home,” she said.

Scenic Rim Regional Council Division Two Councillor Nadia O’Carroll said it was a “brilliant piece of art” and a wonderful addition to the region’s cultural heritage. Beaudesert and District Community Art Project along with council organised for the sculpture to be created as part of a legacy project of the 2013 ASSI 150 commemorations.

The sculpture sits at Hopkins Park, at Mt Lindesay Highway and Worendo Street, Veresdale on land owned by the Walker family.

Joe Eggmolesse, AO recipient 2014

joe eggmolesse

A Maryborough man has been awarded the Order of Australia medal for his service to the Indigenous community.Selwyn Joel Eggmolesse, better known as Joe, has devoted his life to community service, working for government organisations and non-for-profit groups.

Mr Eggmolesse said hearing of the honour was a great feeling, with “a little bit of excitement and pride”. “After all this time the government decided to say thank you,” Mr Eggmolesse said. “The majority of community workers work 24/7 and don’t get paid.”

Fraser Coast Mayor Gerard O’Connell said Mr. Eggmolesse’s recognition was a moment of enormous pride for the Fraser Coast. “Joe epitomises what living on the Fraser Coast is all about. It’s about giving to community and continuing to appreciate the value of people.”

Mr Eggmolesse was born in Nambour and was diagnosed with leprosy as a child. He was sent to live on Fantome Island for 10 years. Mr Eggmolesse, who proudly calls himself a Kanaka, said he began working in Aboriginal affairs in 1974 in Victoria.

In the 1980s Mr Eggmolesse began work in NSW as a health promotion officer and reported on the environment Aboriginal people were living in. He is also proud of his work on the $2.8 million Namatjira Reserve Project. Mr Eggmolesse returned to Queensland in the 1990s, working in health at the Princess Alexandra hospital in Brisbane, at Wide Bay region Indigenous Health co-ordinator and at Cherbourg Community Health.

Joe retired in 1999 but it didn’t last long. “Eight weeks after being retired I went back to work ,” Mr Eggmolesse said. He finished his career with Fraser Coast Health service in 2006. He said much of his work was convincing Aboriginal clients to get help. “It was our job to help people reach out to the services.” He said his best advice was to encourage people to be a humanist.

Mr Eggmolesse is an adviser to the Fraser Coast Housing Services Board and a former member of the Maryborough Aboriginal and Islanders Elders and Community Leaders Group.

Joe Eggmolesse, AO recipient 2014

Centrelink – A change is a coming.

Centrelink questionnaire included - Are you an Australian South Sea Islander

Centrelink questionnaire now including “Are you an Australian South Sea Islander ” & definition Question 18 & 19 which are optional and will not affect your payment. If you do answer, the information it will help us to continue to improve services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Australia South Sea Islanders.

Australian South Sea Islanders are the descendants of Pacific Islander labourers brought from the Western Pacific in the 19th Century. Feedback on the above is welcome and appreciated.

Centrelink – A change is a coming.

Wantok moves ahead to reach National Goal in Mackay QLD.

Wantok moves ahead to reach National Goal in Mackay QLD.
Wantok moves ahead to reach National Goal in Mackay QLD.

The 2013 National Secretariat Model has been dissolved at Wantok 2014 Mackay. In its place an ASSI Governance Working Group has been formed to progress the developments of a constitution for a National body representation.

The new administration arm is to be announced in coming weeks and the working group is Chaired by Greg Sutherland with committed skilled ASSI representatives Dennis Bobongie, Emelda Davis, Mabel Quackawoot, Jennifer Darr and Christine Monday.

Mackay 2014 saw community and organisations unite in solidarity for the first time in a decade. Wantok finale ended today with community participation in sharing of stories from some prominent ASSI names and ni Vanuatu international participants. The CQU Theatrette rang with fits of laughter by elders, friends and family finishing on a high with delicious morning tea. Tanku Tumus Mackay.

Daniel Boyd has become the first indigenous/ASSI man to win the Bulgari Art Award

daniel boyd

Daniel Boyd has become the first indigenous/ASSI man to win the Bulgari Art Award, one of Australia’s richest cultural accolades.

The Cairns-born, Sydney-based artist received the $80,000 award from Italian jewellery brand Bulgari for a work based on a 19th-century photograph from Vanuatu. The luxury brand was guided by the Art Gallery of NSW which, under the terms of its partnership with Bulgari, acquires the painting for $50,000.

Boyd receives that money, plus $30,000 for a residency in Italy. “It’s very humbling,” the artist said after Tuesday’s announcement. “I’m very grateful to be seen in the company of the previous winners,” Boyd added, referring to Michael Zavros and Jon Cattapan.

In the award-winning piece, Untitled 2014, Boyd bedecked his large, predominantly black painting with glistening droplets of transparent glue, which he refers to as “the cultural lens”. “My use of dots references the idea of the cultural lens and the fact that we all have different points of view,” he said.

Boyd’s current series of history paintings investigates the hidden and mysterious histories that took place during the colonisation of the Pacific Islands. Pentecost Island in Vanuatu was home to Boyd’s great-great-grandfather before he was brought to Queensland to work in the sugarcane fields – a practice known as “Blackbirding”.

Many South Sea islanders were brought to Australia to support this industry between 1863 and 1904, and worked for little or no pay. The 31-year-old artist, who left Cairns to study at the Canberra School of Art, also belongs to the Kudjla/Gangalu people from far north Queensland.

ASSI National Body Constitutional Development Meeting 2014

Dear ASSI Community Leaders, Family and Friends,

Greg Sutherland, the chair of the National Australian South Sea Islanders Governance Working Group, is travelling from Mackay to Sydney to consult and gather feedback from ASSI communities/families/friends in Sydney and surrounding areas on the ASSI National Body Constitutional development.

He has asked me to advise the community of the confirmed meeting date and venue so that everyone may be involved.

The model that has been agreed on by a significant number of community consultations to date is the Federation model to represent our people.

Federation Model Definition:

A federation is a country with a united central government that is made up of separate units that each control its own internal affairs. The United States is one example of a federation.

Many countries, such as Canada, Australia, Mexico and India, are federations. The Forum of Federations is an international organization that strives to share advantages and challenges of the federation form of government among its members.

The forum also works with countries struggling to move from more authoritarian forms of government to the more democratic federation model by providing advice and support. Federations allow states with diverse ethnic and cultural groups to unite into strong countries with centralized governments.

Our pro bono law firm, Gilbert & Tobin, have kindly drawn up a community input / feedback questionaire which will be much of the topic for discussion at the meeting and can be downloaded HERE.

Those of you who cannot attend, may want to put questions regarding the attached document Q&A in writing or provide your answers to the questions contained in the form by filling in the far right hand blank column and returning it no later than 1 week prior to the meeting date.

Return the questionaire by emailing your completed copy to both of the following email addresses:

To Greg Sutherland – email: NASSIWG@skillstm.com.au and CC assi.pj@gmail.com
so we can collate all information for the meeting here in Sydney.

An ESTIMATED time frame for adoption of the draft constitution and election of our national delegates is expected to take place in September / October 2014.

Please understand that the draft constitution is not set in stone it is a basis to start from and will change inevitably to represent our community / organisations needs as we develop our national representation.

Time and date for ASSI National Body Constitutional Development Meeting 2014:

Date: Saturday 21st June 2014
Venue: St Johns Church Hall – Glebe
Address: 132 St. Johns Road Glebe, Sydney NSW
Time: 12 noon to 6pm
Refreshments provided,
(RSVP by Monday 16th June 2014 for catering)

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting and hearing your feedback.

Australian South Sea Islanders Receive Federal Grant for Community, Cultural and Economic Capacity Building.

Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) Receive $50,000 Federal Grant for Community, Cultural and Economic Capacity Building.

Emelda Davis, President of The Australian South Sea Islanders-Port Jackson (ASSI-PJ) announced today that she “would like to sincerely thank Senator Kate Lundy, Minister for Multicultural Affairs Canberra for the receipt of a $50,000 Community Development Grant. The monies will be used to stage three educational and fact-finding, community capacity building workshops for ASSI people over the next 12 months.”

Patron for the ASSI.PJ, Mrs Bonita Mabo added her support, saying that “This is the first ever major funding that Australian South Sea Islanders have seen in 150 years in recognition of the contribution made by our people including our forefathers to the building of this great nation. I would like to thank the Prime Minister and Senator Kate Lundy for their support.”

Ms Davis said that “The funding is a very overdue, but much appreciated, Federal initiative representing an historic milestone in the history of the acknowledgement of the significant contributions made by Australian South Sea Islanders within the Australian community. It will be used to progress the much needed process of cultural education, connection and healing between ASSI and broader community groups in Australia.”

2013 marks a significant 150 years since 55,000 South Sea Islanders (95% male) were bought to Queensland, Australia on 62,000 indentured contracts to establish sugar, maritime and pastoral industries. Many of these men and women did not return to their Island homes and 15,000 (a third) lost their lives to common disease to which they lacked immunity.

During the implementation of the White Australia Policy a mass deportation of some 7,000 SSI’s occurred, and 1,600 were allowed to remain under humanitarian circumstances. Several hundred more had crossed the border into NSW in the 1890s and 1900s to escape the more severe conditions in Queensland.

1992 saw the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission published a Report which called for recognition of the ASSI community as a distinct ethnic group within Australian. This was followed by Commonwealth recognition in 1994.

In 1995 NSW Premier Bob Carr advised ministers to include ASSI’s in all programs and services. This memorandum has been overlooked to date.

In 2000 Premier Peter Beattie recognised ASSIs in Queensland, yet despite these official gestures there was little sustained government assistance to the ASSI community.

On 15th August 2013 Alex Greenwich, Independent Member for Sydney supported the ASSI-PJ with a timely motion seeking meaningful debate recognising ASSIs and gaining unanimous support from all parties in the NSW Parliament – seeing two Ministers and five Members speak strongly in favour of the overdue recognition of ASSI.

For NSW, 2013 marks 166 years since the first South Sea Islanders were bought to Eden by entrepreneur Ben Boyd who had already used Aboriginal, Maori and Pacific Islands labourers in his whaling industry ventures. Worried about not having sufficient labour for his pastoral properties, in 1847 he decided to experiment with bringing in a Pacific Islanders workforce, without waiting for government permission. This was a humanitarian disaster.

Ms Davis said: ‘Our organisation prides it self on being the interim national representative body that has led by example through meaningful collaboration with governments, and educational, community organisations and agencies. The ASSI.PJ team acknowledges the trust and respect that has been entrusted through the grants that are now being received by this group through the Commonwealth.’

Capacity building workshops are titled ‘Wantok 150’ and will take place in Mackay, QLD and Tweed Heads, NSW.

A major forum was held in Brisbane at the State Library Queensland in early November with the Library also donating $10,000 worth of resources in recognition of 150 years.

New group to represent South Sea Islanders | SBS News

New group to represent South Sea Islanders | SBS News

New group to represent South Sea Islanders | SBS News

Australian South Sea Islanders have established a national body to lobby for their interests at a federal level.

At a meeting in Brisbane, representatives of the estimated 40,000 strong community in Australia elected a national president and board.

They represent the descendants of so-called “blackbirds”, Pacific islanders who were kidnapped or broughtas contract labourers to Queensland to work in the agricultural industry between 1863 and 1906.

President Emelda Davis from the Port Jackson branch of the group, told Queensland correspondent Stefan Armbruster it is a long overdue development.

“This is huge for Australian South Sea Islanders simply because it’s been 40 years since the last significant conference addressing the national voice,” Emelda Davis says.

“We believe we’re that ready to do the work to lobby governments and work with the international platforms to assist us to reconnect with our families and capacity-building.”

Listen to the full interview at SBS World News.

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