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Last Updated 9 January 2004

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Jeanette Morgan, Mackay

I am the Australian South Sea Islander Liaison officer at Centrelink Mackay in Area Central North Qld. Mackay has the highest population of ASSI. This makes our community unique to the rest of Aust. The plight of the ASSI people on some issues has been side stepped for many years prior to, and since recognition. As descendants of people who were 'blackbirded' from their island homes we are just as proud of our heritage as we are to be Australian. The very close association of our older generations to the Aboriginal & Torres Strait old people was evidence that the discrimination against all 3 races was so great that they had to aid each other just to be able to survive. ASSI community have not only made a huge contribution to the development of primary production & industry but also to multicultural Australia. My responses are a combination of my own and that of many clients we interviewed for a project we did which was looking at gaps in service delivery to ASSI.

What is the impact of a long history of legal, social and economic discrimination?

The impact on ASSI people has been enormous and there is no explanation which could rectify the treatment they have received as a culturally diverse group. The ancestors were bought here to work under harsh conditions. Today, migrants are encouraged by all three tiers of government to be participative in the community and a lot is put in place to see that this happens but the ASSI people never had that opportunity. They were brought here, put to work, expected to keep to themselves and be self sufficient wherever possible as they were not allowed in all shops, mainstream hospitals and schools for many years. There was never opportunity to own land, homes or other items which white Australians took for granted. There was very low self esteem because they were treated as less than equal and often blamed for whatever crime happened in areas where they worked even though actual crimes committed by them were minimal. ASSI people took whatever was offered to them in terms of education, medical assistance and employment. Most were never recognised for their experience in the canefield and when machinery started taking over from manual labour very few of the ASSI field workers were taught how to operate harvesters etc but were kept in the field. Many workers who came to the sugar industry then, had never worked in the fields doing manual labour. ASSI people have suffered severe discrimination, lack of support from governments who exploited them, and have been disadvantaged in terms of appropriate service delivery. They were stereo-typed and put in with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders as all being the same, and now are finding it very hard to break away from what that entitled them to once Governments started to raise the profile of the needs of the A&TSI people.

How should such a history influence our responses to disadvantages experienced by current generations?

There is a need for not only recognition of the Australian South Sea Islanders as a distinct cultural group but a real need to start implementing some positive changes to assist ASSI people. Employment especially apprenticeships, cadetships, identified school teachers, nursing and all levels of education need to be updated to include ASSI. Since Federal Recognition in 1994 there has been minimal change and the recommendations which were put up to the HREOC at the time have only been addressed in part, but not to any beneficial amount. The community in many consultations have asked for flexible modes of service delivery. There has been a serious lack of data and monitoring regarding ASSI people and this in itself shows the total disregard afforded to them as a race. People are not identifying as ASSI so there is a need to compile data of this population and service their needs accordingly. Encourage ASSI to identify correctly and give the options on all forms etc to state if they have both Indigenous and ASSI heritage. Each agency should be asked to collect data over a period of time and governments need to come together at a central location to evaluate the data and look at outcomes.

Should the descendants of people directly affected be entitled to an apology for past injustices?

It would be too late for those who really deserved it. Recognition, while a lot later in coming, does give some sort of apology for past atrocities. The fact that both State & Federal Recognition statements gained bi-partisan support possibly suggests that they felt an element of guilt at the insult given to the ASSI people for over 130 years. The ASSI community did not officially exist as far as Governments were concerned. Saying sorry will not undo the injustices and would not be moving ahead but dwelling in the past. It would be better to acknowledge that there were injustices and rise above them albeit late in coming.

What special measures of support and assistance should be put in place?

Given the lack of positive support given to ASSI in the past there is much scope for it to happen now. Assistance needed is not always financial, but service delivery always comes at a cost. There are many areas where ASSI have been severely disadvantaged over the years.

TAFE courses and other training needs to be available specifically for ASSI. Need not be separate from Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander or mainstream courses but the courses be inclusive of ASSI specific. Course delivery needs to be flexible because not all people suit structure. Training is a key issue because many of the manual labour positions are being made redundant and these employees are not competitive in the workplace any longer. Enhance appropriate training packages and update curriculum data for schools.

There needs to be recurrent funds allocated to allow "area specific" ASSI agencies to be funded for a Community Development worker to work specifically with ASSI people. This worker would liaise with three tiers of Government and their service delivery agencies, Aboriginal & Torres Strait agencies, Jobnetwork members, apprenticeship centres, universities, employers, schools etc. Currently this is being done by employees of Government departments who have taken on advocate roles for the community. Investigate resourcing ASSI peak bodies recurrently so that they can have appropriate employees working continually for them, not for short periods and then the funding ceases. Possibility of employing full time and providing further training for some of the many ASSI people who do traineeships but who don't get full time work.

More ASSI people need to be recognised in their workplace. In areas of high ASSI people there may need to be some type of incentive for employers. ASSI people have given great contributions to Governments to improve service delivery for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people because Governments, through lack of cultural awareness, chose to use the term Islander lightly. These ASSI people thought they were paving the way for their own people too, but this was not the case. Start profiling employees, sports people, students and others from ASSI communities and if they have dual heritage with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander acknowledge this. It is nothing to hide, it's a richness of cultures.

There are some agencies which are funded to run a tri-service. That is, they are within their funding guidelines to service Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander & ASSI members without explanation or loss of identity to their clients. The Yamadi HACC program in Mackay is in this unique position and it works well. The CEO at the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Service has acknowledged that Mackay is in a very unique position and if funded could service the ASSI clients appropriately. Allocate funds specifically for ASSI clients and staff, but use the existing agencies especially all health, allied health services, legal services and local justice groups.

School students are being put in very difficult positions. Some rightly, or wrongly, are receiving Abstudy. They know they would not be at school if they didn't get the payments. Locally, some DEST employees are very outspoken to parents who they think should not be accessing their services.

Many families cannot afford all of the necessities for school, but there are no allowances for this. It is very difficult to get families to identify correctly. School counsellors have approached us to see if there is anything that can be done for families who identify solely as ASSI, but who can't afford some of the lessons or tutoring. Programs like ISLIP through DEST are very definite who can access but many are accessing who shouldn't. Workers with these groups do not question because they would lose their numbers, and in turn, the funding.

Need to look at education at all levels very seriously. Many of the youth are ceasing school because of the shame of not being able to have the necessities let alone the trend things that teenagers want. The rate of youth pregnancies in this community is getting higher and so is the drug and alocohol abuse because the kids have too much time on their hands. Although there is not an over representation of ASSI youth in the prison system there are many in the courts.

DEST may be able to seek resources from Government to enable ASSI to access funding through the multicultural component of their allocation to assist. Many programs identify ASSI as a culturally disadvantaged group eg DEWR but no funds are allocated to JNM to do any special programs. The appropriate staff need to be employed to deliver training, especially the Jobsearch training. A lot of feedback comes from ASSI clients who are dissatisfied with JNM approaches to them. The issue of the Wage Assistance Card has caused many problems. It seems that some clients have been told to say they are Indigenous even if they weren't because and I quote one "we all get a win by doing it this way". DEWR to look at some positives with the JNM for ASSI.

There are more families where both parents are receiving income support payments and have done for years because neither have the skills to compete for positions. They have low self esteem because of not being able to find work. This is becoming a big issue in the community. Many are willing to participate in CDEP and CJP programs because they have the skills to do these jobs and don't feel inadequate, and are earning a wage, even if it is for a set period of time. Domestic violence is an issue, probably associated to no work, but not many women are seeking assistance from appropriate agencies. Investigate the possibility of allocating funds and designated places, and some pro rata board seats to CDEP to allow ASSI to be participants. Some areas have no issues with ASSI participants; others have huge issues.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have serviced ASSI in some areas for many years. It is true, that like health, training and housing, the numbers used had to include ASSI to justify the funding in those specific areas. Fund current services to meet the needs of ASSI and allow them to have appropriate service without prejudice.

Encourage and establish links with relatives in Vanuatu & Solomons etc. Many of the ASSI community want to know their real identity. School programs should be appropriate to link back. Look at short exchange programs for students. Could encourage school retention and to get parents involved. To teach French to the ASSI students may be appropriate. Our students can go there and learn about their history and both would be sharing their other skills whilst there. Perhaps fares assistance. There could be there tutoring and learning at the same time.

In the past there have been members of the ASSI community who believe compensation should be paid to make up for the suffering and loss of wages of the past. The people who deserved this are no longer with us but as a legacy there are other ways which would be beneficial to the community of today. The archives are full of our history. Many dollars and hours of often fruitless consultations have occurred without positive results. The ASSI people have participated and been researched but most were never paid for their contribution. There are many younger people today who have the skills to raise the profile of the ASSI people in the broader community, and who are proud of their heritage and proud to be Australian. Instead of looking at compensation for individuals then possibly Governments might consider an allocation of an amount of money to be used over a number of years to promptly improve service delivery and the current situation with education, housing, health, training and employment for ASSI descendants.

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Rowena Trieve, Mackay

These comments have been put together from my experiences of working with the Australian South Sea Islander community on a voluntary basis over several years, which also included the prior recognition years. I am also a third generation Australian South Sea Islander. Thank you for providing a platform on which the voice of our people can be heard.

Recognition by Federal Government (1994) and Queensland State Government (2000) has helped to make mainstream and Government departments more aware of the issues faced by the Australian South Sea Islanders. Proposals and an action plan were formulated by both Governments to address the issues in health, housing, employment, education, social issues and cultural heritage. While some proposals have been actioned in a spasmodic fashion others have not been addressed. This serves as a timely reminder that Australian South Sea Islanders are not indigenous to this country. They are a distinct cultural group. Their experience has been different to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are the state’s indigenous peoples. It has also been different to the experience of most other groups who live in Queensland.

To me Recognition has a component of sorry in it as it acknowledges the exploitation of the past, while giving recognition to a community whose identity had been denied for 130 years prior to Recognition. We had never been formally recognised as a distinct minority group in Australia because we had not officially existed. The Federal Attorney General when making the announcement said, and I quote, “This is the greatest insult that can be paid to any group, more than an insult it deflates the community’s self-esteem and threatens the collective heritage of the Australian South Sea Islanders”.

We need resources to support the Australian South Sea Islander communities to access and activate programs that are being put in place. These programs are of little use if we are not also given resources to show us how to utilise them in a productive way. Training structures need to be flexible and culturally appropriate so that our community can compete on a level playing field when trying to enter the education and employment arenas. We do not need separate services; we need those that are already available to be culturally adjusted so we can access them at our own ability level.

In the Mackay region, which has the largest population of Australian South Sea Islanders anywhere in Australia, the Mackay & District Australian South Sea Islander Association (MADASSIA) was formed in 1995. One of its objectives is to lobby government and other groups to improve the situation of Australian South Sea Islanders. There are many dedicated and committed community members who are forming networks with Government on a local, state and federal level. Some are working in the forefront while others are quietly working and supporting in the background. These partnerships have created some first time achievements as they have paved the way for specifically identified positions for Australian South Sea Islander workers.

Three of which are:

Since then similar positions have been established in other regions for Australian South Sea Islander communities. Although some inroads have been made there is still a long way to go.

Please - we do not need further research, as we feel we have been researched to death! Consolidating the proposals that have been actioned and actioning the remaining proposals will breakdown barriers that are preventing some sections of our community from enjoying the normal lifestyle that most people take for granted and which so far has eluded them.

“WE NEED A HAND UP, NOT A HANDOUT!”

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Frederick Gesha (Gisu)

I am of Torres Strait Island and South Sea Island decent. My father is from Murray Island (MER) and my mother is fourth generation Kanaka from Aoba one of the Islands that make up Vanuatu.

My mother’s family the TOGO's (Tuku: I'm not sure of the correct spelling) were brought to the Tweed in the late 1800's. There we were settled to work the sugar cane and banana farms and have been there ever since.

The invasion and occupation of Australia in 1788 under the legal guise of "Terra Nullius" has left a legacy of living standards for Indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders comparable to third and fourth world conditions. Who knew from the initial invasion of Australia that this would lead to catastrophic events for the people of the South Pacific?

Blackbirding can only be likened to slavery and like the stolen generations Pacific Islanders are a Stolen race, removed from their homes, taken to a foreign land, unable to speak the language, forgetting their own language and traditional way of life and forced to live in conditions of third or fourth world countries set up by the white man to only further dehumanise and humiliate. There have been a succession of native welfare policies specifically designed for the total destruction of Indigenous Australians and under which South Sea Islanders were included and suffered under and also denied the right to be recognised as a distinct ethnic group.

The year is 2003 and still the majority of white Australia are unaware that Australia traded in human flesh. They have been lied to through our government’s education system propaganda machine that the sugar industry was built on the sun tanned shoulders of hard working white Australians. People are actually shocked to find out that Australia had their very own slave trade. When you look at the history of European invasion and occupation the results are all too similar on any indigenous group in the world today. In fact there has been a suggestion that White invaders had turned genocide into a science. The science of how to destroy a race of people. I would say that the consequences of white invasion was more than just inevitable. So, like our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, we deserve an apology and an admission of responsibility from the government.

Still today in 2003 we suffer the effects of slavery as do Indigenous Australians still suffer from white invasion. Indigenous Australians and South Pacific Islanders are amongst the worlds most disadvantaged groups.

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Joyce Wallis, Cairns

I have found over the years that South Sea Islanders are not recognised as a group of people in their own right. I am very proud of my heritage but for me to obtain any sort of funding, say ABSTUDY, during my school years, I had to claim on my father's Aboriginal heritage.

I firmly believe that many of our South Sea Islanders claim that they are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders to receive funding for education etc., which should not be the case as we are denying our South Sea Islander heritage.

There should be more promotion of the South Sea Islander heritage and the contributions that our families have made to this country and hardship faced by our people. We were and still are treated as badly as the Aboriginals, no rights, and what has happened to our lost wages for our parents and forefathers? Will they be compensated for their loss of wages etc?

When I say I am South Sea Islander, many people do not believe me. They think that we have all died out years ago, or we do not exist, that you are either Aboriginal or TSI.

I know that scholarships were given but they mainly went to Rockhampton; should be more offered up here in Cairns as well. I do not know how we can access funding etc, or is it combined with ATSI funding.

Yes we should be recognised as a separate group for funding, included in ABSTUDY funding and all other areas of funding, not be excluded as we have been since we came to this country by force.

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James Gistitin,
Kanaka Town Collective Housing, Rockhampton

With regards to census in 2001 there were only 3,442 responses from people indicating there South Sea Islander ancestry, compared to the 1992 census figures of between 10,000 and 12,000 people. I feel that the drop in figures is inaccurate, and is probably due to the preference of support for the Aboriginal Community and the benefits available therein. If a new census was conducted now, there would be a more accurate account of the numbers, due to the absence of fear of reprisal, i.e. loss of benefits and support. These figures would also be inaccurate due to the fact it is cultural for South Sea Islanders to have big families.
 
2. The favouritism or discrimination fosters on-going tension between the Aboriginal Community and the South Sea Islander Community.
 
3. There needs to be more accessible free entry into Australia for the relatives living in the South Sea Islands to visit with family members living in Australia, similar to entry into Australia by New Zealanders.
 
4. I feel that there should be special funding set aside from the budget, for the South Sea Islander Community.
 
5. You have asked whether these programs have been successful enough or have they gone far enough. I feel that an apology is not enough and that certainly more needs to be done. There seems to be a multitude of written support and information but not enough follow up action and implementation of real action, i.e. funding, scholarships and benefits.
 
6. I also note that there is no mention of the Livingstone and Rockhampton Shire Council’s recognition of the South Sea Islanders as a distinct group, mentioned in the Erace Forum.
 
7. Despite the recognition in the year 2000 by the Labour Government formally recognising the South Sea Islanders as a distinct group, no action has been forthcoming, nothing has changed.
 
An organisation comparable to ATSIC could be established for South Sea Islanders. This would also be a positive move to alleviate the tension between the two communities.
 
9. It is important to arouse the awareness of the general public, about the difference between the South Sea Islander and Aboriginal Community.
 
10. In 1995 Premier Bob Carr’s letters to his ministers was certainly a positive move, however the N.S.W. Government needs to officially recognise South Sea Islanders as a distinct group as did the Queensland Government in the year 2000.
 
11. It would seem appropriate for compensation in retrospect, for the 100yrs of discrimination and neglect up to the present time.

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