Blackbirding was a form of slavery or forced indentured servitude that happened throughout the Pacific during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Vanuatu, blackbirding largely consisted of men, but sometimes women, being forcibly carted off to work in sugar plantations in Australia or in Fiji. Sometimes men did volunteer to do this work, but without understanding how many years they were signing away or how little money they would get in return for that work.
So here's the Tongariki blackbirding story.
Man Tongariki gets taken to work in Queensland, Australia. They work hard and eventually, they're on their way out. They're going back to the ships to go back to Vanuatu where they'll finally see their family again.
They're walking along and they come to a river. At the river, they see two Aboriginal children, a brother and a sister, who say their parents abandoned them, they're hungry, they don't have anything to eat, and they don't have anywhere to go.
What does Man Tongariki do?
...
That's right. That's right. They tell the kids, that's okay, you come with us, we have lots of food where we live, you'll like our little island.
The kids assent.
And yeah. I heard that the boy married and only had a few children before he died young, but that the girl had tons of kids. Half of Tavia village is part Australian and there are lots of people from other villages related to them. In fact, a few months ago, there was a big discussion on the island about whether or not certain people might be eligible for Australian citizenship, as in fact their grandmother or grandfather was an Australian.
There's the story.
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