Awareness and funds for South Sea Islander Assoc.

THE Tweed Gold Coast Australian South Sea Islander Association (TGCASSIA) is holding a cultural information day and fundraising sale tomorrow (Saturday, November 16).

The organisation has supported generations of South Sea Islander families, reconnecting family members and informing the general community of their history for 50 years.

The South Sea Islander community has a rich history in the region intertwined with the Tweed’s sugarcane industry. More than 62,000 South Sea Islanders arrived in Queensland as indentured labourers. Many were kidnapped (blackbirded) from their villages in the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides (Vanuatu), Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Many escaped south to the Tweed and by 1901, there were 394 Islanders in the region, and within five years, more than 70 families had children born in Australia. The new generation formed much of the labour for the local sugar and banana industries.

In Cudgen, William Julius established a sugar mill in 1878, employing around 200 Islanders, which he sold to John Robb in the 1890s.

The site included housing barracks, a dining hall, a post office, a pub, a police station, a guest house, workers cottages, a store, a school and three churches. The farm became well known as a place of refuge from the harsh conditions in the north.

Robb encouraged his labourers to acquire land, circumventing the White Australia policy that emerged during Federation. He was held in high esteem, and in 1911, the entire adult population of the Cudgen district attended his funeral.

Subsequent activists and community leaders worked in the civil rights arena and are an important element of the Tweed’s history.

Faith Mussing Bandler Park in Tumbulgum was named in honour of Dr Faith Bandler OAM, who spent her life battling injustice motivated by her father’s experience as a slave labourer.

The cent sale fundraising day will also include cultural displays, information and talks.

South Sea Islander communities and the public are warmly invited to join in to share the wealth of history and culture at the community centre from 11am.