Bad Bird!

Bula! + a wide smile is the standard greeting in Fiji, it's heard all the time and everywhere. I could say with perfect truth that Fiji is breath taking. Beyond beautiful - the blue skies and the deep Pacific blue of the oceans and a few more true but bland things like that. 

On the road, somewhere before Sigatoka.

I could pick some birds even, write reams about them, because there are nearly 200 species found on these islands. Or basket weaving - a traditional craft here, made from pandanus leaves. I could even tell you about the local brewery - it produces a top quality and uber popular brand of beer. There you go, B done and dusted.

Beautiful sunset over Suva.

But no, because there are other sides to Fiji, not always beautiful. In fact, quite the opposite, ugly and complicated. Difficult to find the right words to frame them - the awful widespread, global nature of greed, a terrible web of exploitation and cruelty leaving no corner of the world untouched. It's mind boggling.

Blackbirding is used to refer to the once common trade in which the South Pacific Islanders were tricked, coerced and/or abducted into slavery to work on plantations and mines far away from their homes. As USA and UK abolished slavery legally in the 19th century, there arose a huge shortage of labour to work in the various colonies. Blackbirding involved  the capture or recruitment of South Pacific Islanders along with the First Nations Peoples' from Australia to meet that shortfall of cheap labour. Sometimes entire villages were taken away from their homelands, decimating centuries old kinship structures and depopulating whole regions. From 1840 to 1950, it is estimated that about 1.5 million indigenous people in the South Pacific were subjected to this abuse and exploitation. 

The ships, captains and crews involved in the practice were called blackbirders. Fiji was both a source for blackbirders as well as a major destination. Island peoples from Rotuma, Solomon Islands and New Hebrides were brought to work the cotton and sugar plantations in Fiji first in 1864. Sometimes people were kidnapped outright, but more often they were 'recruited' into the work by deception and had no idea of what they were getting into.  Many did not understand the 'contract' or their 'terms of service' signalled to them by hand gestures. It was common practice to make the blackbirding ships look like missionary ones and lure the villagers onto them to meet the 'bishop' and hold them captive. This led to repercussions against the true missionaries sometimes. 

The demand for blackbirded labourers (called Kanakas then, now considered pejorative) came from the European colonies in New South Wales, Queensland, Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and New Caledonia as well as South America - Guatemala, Peru and Mexico. The so called recruitment happened in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Island, Vanuatu, Rotuma (Fiji), Niue, Easter Island and Gilbert Island. In the Americas, they provided labour for the haciendas and to mine guano deposits. Elsewhere, they worked in various plantations, pearling, mining, railway and road construction. Read the story of the descendants of some blackbirded workers in Fiji here.  

Fiji was also a major destination for Indian indentured labourers whose descendants form a major demographic here today, but let's leave that for a different day and letter. 

Unfortunately, a practice similar to blackbirding continues even now in many parts of the world. Labourers are recruited by force or lured by false/misrepresented remuneration, taken away from their homes to work in distant places, kept in squalid conditions and paid a pittance.  According to this UN report, at least 18% of human trafficking is for the purposes of forced labour (the rest are sex slaves, even more disturbing!) It is estimated that around 25 million people are trafficked annually by Disrupt Human Trafficking (DHT), that means nearly 5 million people are exploited as forced labour annually. Sobering thought, isn't it? 

All this month I'll be writing about Aspects of Fiji, which is where I am at the mo. And where the sum of  the constituent parts is mind Bogglingly greater than the whole!

Were you aware of the history of blackbirding? I hadn't heard of the term till I came to Fiji. Forget me, it seems awareness of it in Australia/New Zealand is low too, even though it is part of their own history! 

Did you know that the Backbone of the Fijian economy was built by Blackbirded and Bonded labourers in the 19th century? The cotton, coconut and sugar plantations all employed these workers Brought in from distant lands.  

~ Thank you for reading ~

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2023