Brian Courtice on blackbirding - Streets of Your Town

As the Black Lives Matter movement gathers pace around the world, prompting Australians to reflect on race and discrimination in this country, debate is growing about Australia's legacy of blackbirding. More than 60,000 Pacific Islanders, then known as kanakas, were forced, coerced or deceived into leaving their native lands and shipped to Australia between 1863 to 1904. They worked in often cruel conditions, and were paid a pittance as indentured labourers on farms. Their graves, many unmarked, are still being discovered. Many thousands of their descendants still live in Australia, and are proudly known as Australian South-Sea Islanders. Brian Courtice is the former federal member for Hinkler, who lives on the farm "Sunnyside" just outside of Bundaberg in Queensland. He's had to come to terms with the farm's blackbirding past, and in this interview on Streets of Your Town podcast, he renews his calls to the federal government and the Australian public, to not only recognise this chapter of Australian history, but also support ways to heal the ongoing pain of the generations who followed. This interview is on Brian's front porch, with his grandchildren running around him, continuing the generations of his family who have lived on the farm since the 1920s. He shows me photos of a recent tour of local schoolchildren who came to his property. They came to see the graves of South Sea Islanders who died on the farm, and learn about local history. The site is now heritage listed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the Black Lives Matter movement gathers pace around the world, prompting Australians to reflect on race and discrimination in this country, debate is growing about Australia's legacy of blackbirding. More than 60,000 Pacific Islanders, then known as kanakas, were forced, coerced or deceived into leaving their native lands and shipped to Australia between 1863 to 1904. They worked in often cruel conditions, and were paid a pittance as indentured labourers on farms. Their graves, many unmarked, are still being discovered. Many thousands of their descendants still live in Australia, and are proudly known as Australian South-Sea Islanders. Brian Courtice is the former federal member for Hinkler, who lives on the farm "Sunnyside" just outside of Bundaberg in Queensland. He's had to come to terms with the farm's blackbirding past, and in this interview on Streets of Your Town podcast, he renews his calls to the federal government and the Australian public, to not only recognise this chapter of Australian history, but also support ways to heal the ongoing pain of the generations who followed. This interview is on Brian's front porch, with his grandchildren running around him, continuing the generations of his family who have lived on the farm since the 1920s. He shows me photos of a recent tour of local schoolchildren who came to his property. They came to see the graves of South Sea Islanders who died on the farm, and learn about local history. The site is now heritage listed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.