|
|
|
BOOK REVIEW
| Tracey Banivanua-Mar, Violence and Colonial Dialogue: The Australian-Pacific Indentured Labour Trade, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2007. pp. x + 270. US $49.00 cloth.
|
| The use of indentured and often kidnapped Pacific Island workers in Queensland during the nineteenth century represents Australia's only substantial use of semi-free non-European plantation workers. At the same time, repeated employer attempts to introduce indentured non-European workers since at least the 1830s should not be overlooked. That only this one experiment 'succeeded' to any extent had much to do with climate/agricultural activities and historical and political contingencies. |
1
|
|
Given the recent announcement by the federal government of a scheme to introduce temporary agricultural harvest workers into Australia from the Pacific Islands, under a form of sponsorship not so different from indenture, makes the publication of this book all the more welcome. In keeping with this, the book traces the residual effects of the Pacific Island indentured labour trade for Australia from the expulsion of most Islanders (bar about 2,500) to meet the requirements of 'White Australia' through to the present. |
2
|
|
The book is valuable in a number of respects. It is, as the author readily acknowledges, not the first book or journal article to traverse this terrain. However, the author provides new insights by spending more time analysing the location and societies where the Pacific Islanders came from (aided by maps as well as discussion) and in the tradition of 'history from below' the author gives us more of a perspective, as far as is possible, of how Islanders themselves saw and experienced indentured labour in Queensland. |
3
|
|
Banivanua-Mar has made good use of available documents and contemporary photographs. The photographs are a powerful device for bringing the human dimension to those affected, their working and living conditions, the ships that brought them as well as offering telling portrayals of their 'masters' (such as on page 55 which intriguingly also includes what appears to be a European child working alongside the Pacific Islanders planting sugar cane). |
4
|
|
The author is also keen to portray this story of racism and labour exploitation in terms of un-packing the value-laden language of the European settlers and British and colonial authorities who wrote almost all the surviving documents. Banivanua-Mar seeks to establish a dialogue between those who controlled the Pacific Island workers and the workers themselves. This not only gives the latter historical 'voice' (seen in their capacity to adapt, survive, organise and resist) but also opens up the contemporary society and perspectives of Europeans to sharp scrutiny. To do this, for example, Banivanua-Mar undertakes detailed analysis and reinterpretation of a range of records including those on imprisonment and health as well as interrogating colonial settler diaries. The evolving political, legislative and judicial debate is also traced. |
5
|
|
The picture that emerges throughout the book is a dynamic and rich one. The depiction of racism that emerges is not simplistic nor is the notion of violence and stereotyping. That Islanders were portrayed as both childlike and violent savages is counterposed against evidence refuting this and establishing the collaborative social network Islanders built around their workplace. Barely implicit is the notion that the indentured labour trade itself can be seen as legitimated violence. This is an observation worth pondering by those advocating ever 'freer' labour markets that may well exact similar outcomes. |
. . . |
There are about 563 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
