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Name
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Tanna
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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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My grandfather was Moses Topay Enares. He was only 12 years old when he was coerced onto a ship, put in the hold and fed stodge, a flour-like substance, until he arrived in Queensland. His wife, who recorded and retold his story, tells of him being taken from the beach off the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. Moses passed on the Northern Rivers in New South Wales in 1961. He never saw his family from Tanna again.
History Article.
Davis, Emelda (Waskam). "Australia's hidden history of slavery: the government divides to conquer." The Conversation, October 31, 2017, https://theconversation.com/australias-hidden-history-of-slavery-the-government-divides-to-conquer-86140. Accessed 16 June 2026.
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The beach is where thousands of boys and young men were kidnapped, tricked or coerced onto boats, and taken roughly 2,000 kilometres to Australia. They were forced to work on sugarcane plantations. Many never returned home. It happened 150 years ago, but many people are still struggling to come to terms with it. 'Whenever you want to go down the beach, you have to make sure you go with friends — don't ever go by yourself,' says local woman Josephine Gideon.
Journalism article, radio program.
Pepper, Fiona. "The boys from Tanna who never came home." ABC Radio National, 20 February, 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-21/blackbirding-legacy-haunts-tanna-vanuatu/11764586. Accessed 16 June 2026.
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Back on Tanna Island, the salty air brushes against a woman's face as she stands at the edge of the beach facing the horizon. The sea comes crashing against her ankles, covering the sides of her feet with a thin layer of black sand. [...] She scans the curved distance of the horizon for that ship. That ship that took her son. No - that stole her son. She knows nothing about where it has taken him. Whether he will be returned to her. She is hopeful, but unsure. At this moment, she is left only with sorrow and the bitter memory of that day, the day her son was stolen from her.
Prose, Anthology.
Natuman Losana. "The Bitterness of Sugar Cane." Sista, Stanap Strong!: A Vanuatu Women's Anthology, edited by Mikaeal Nyman and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, Victoria University of Wellington Press, 2021, p. 27.
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The establishment consisted of 49 Tanna and Vate men, 8 convicts, and 6 other white men, the brothers Joubert superintending. Several thousand pounds have been expended in the erection of the machinery, which is propelled by water-power from the river close by, but they hope to make it pay. The boiling-house is a fine large, airy building, and the specimens of sugar looked excellent. The natives, as far as I could judge, seemed intelligent and happy.
Historical Narrative.
Palmer, George A. Kidnapping in the South Seas: Being a Narrative of a Three Months' Cruise of H.M. Ship Rosario. Edmonston and Douglas, 1871, p. 15.
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Authority
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Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act 1868; Pacific Islanders Protection Acts 1872 and 1875; Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (Cth, Australia)
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Archives and sources
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Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (ANU)
Palauni M Tuiasosopo, Land Alienation in the New Hebrides. University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994.
National Library of Australia.
Queensland State Archives.
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-TAN