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Name
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Pele Island
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Type of carceral site
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Blackbirding
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Dates of use
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1847 – 1906
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Quote
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The memory of a black woman lives in the shadowed dreams of
Night-time stories.
They said she was short and had straight black hair. Told us she was
happy and sang to her children.
But there is tragedy in the death certificate that Dulcie
Sends me. It is dated June 12, 1878
Frames a story that contradicts everything I was told.
22-year-old female from Pele Island, New Hebrides.
She has three sons and two daughters. They are aged 8, 5, 4, 3, and newborn.
Richard, Daniel, Maryanne, Jane and John.
These are names that I recognise.
Poetry.
Koya Vaka'uta, Frances C. "Leiniaru, the Girl from Pele Island who Picks the Fruit of the Niaru Tree." Sista, Stanap Strong!: A Vanuatu Women's Anthology, edited by Mikaeal Nyman and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, Victoria University of Wellington Press, 2021, p. 25.
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Vanuatu is free, self-determined, self-governing / men are free, / women are chattels.
Poetry.
Molisa, Grace Mera. Colonised People. Black Stone Publications, 1987, p. 23.
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They were on the beach and a recruiting boat sailed up and had all pretty things on the deck, and her father paddled his canoe out to see what was there. While he was there they pushed his canoe away from the ship and the ship started to sail. Only then, too late, did her father see what they were doing. She said they were crying on the beach, watching him go, thinking they were taking him. But he jumped off the boat and as he was swimming and diving they were shooting at him.
History, Academic Chapter.
Moore, Clive. "Australian South Sea Islanders' Narratives of Belonging." University of Queensland, 1979, p. 15 qtd. in Gounder, Farzana. Narrative and Identity Construction in the Pacific Islands. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015, p. 160-161.
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Authority
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Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act 1868; Queensland Pacific Island Labourers Act 1880
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Archives and sources
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Forsyth, Miranda. A Bird that Flies with Two Wings: Kastom and state justice systems in Vanuatu. ANU Press, 2009.
Molisa, Grace Mera. Colonised People: Poems. Black Stone Publications, 1987.
Kelly, Elizabeth. "Unwrapping Mats: People, Land and Material Culture in Tongoa, Central Vanuatu." University College London, Department of Anthropology, 1999.
Moore, Clive. "Sugaropolis: The Mackay–Pacific Islands Labour Trade Voyage Statistics 1867-1903." University of Queensland, School of Historical and Philosophical Enquiry, 2020.
National Library of Australia.
Vanuatu Cultural Centre (Port Vila)
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Contact
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Jerry/Kieren
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identifier
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SITE-PEL