Blackbirding is the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The practice took place on a large scale with the taking of people indigenous to the numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean during the 19th and 20th centuries. These blackbirded people were called Kanakas or South Sea Islanders. They were taken from places such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Easter Island, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, Fiji, and the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago amongst others.
In 1869, HMS Rosario seized the blackbirding schooner Daphne and freed its passengers, who were bound for Queensland, Australia.
Kanaka workers in a sugar cane plantation in Queensland, late 19th century.
Robert Towns
The Para, Captain John Ronald Mackay at the Solomon Islands in 1894
Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)
Kanakas were workers from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Queensland (Australia) in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They also worked in California and Chile.
Kanaka workers on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland, late 19th century.
Loyalty Islanders employed as sailors on the New Caledonian coast
South Sea Islander labourers on a Queensland pineapple plantation, 1890s; photographer unknown
Kanaka built house in Queensland in 1907