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Blackbirding stories (Go back to the Blackbirding book)

Recorded by Sybille Gundert in 1982
Unakap village, Nguna Island, North Efate
A ship went to Nguna and took the grandparents of Chief Toni Takai to work on the sugar plantations in Queensland.

S. G.: How long did local men go to Queensland for?
Jif Toni Takai: They went to work for six months, some for one year.

S. G.: What did they bring back when they returned?
T. T.: When they came back they brought calico (material), knives, axes and other things, because they didn't have all of those things here. Before, the old people used to work by hand in their gardens.
S. G.: Your father went to school in Queensland because he was only a small boy?
T. T.: Yes, my father went to school in Queensland , there was no school here then.
S. G.: When he went to Queensland, he only talked his own language, so how did he talk with all the others from other islands who were there too, for example, if he wanted to talk with a Tannese man. Which language did they use?
T. T.: They tried to learn new languages.
S. G.: Sometimes on the plantations, if a Tannese man didn't like a Ngunese man, did they fight?
T. T.: Yes, they fought. Those from the Solomons were the same. Some men also went to work on the plantations in Fiji. One of them ran away from Fiji and went to work in Queensland then went back to Fiji to tell them all that Queensland was a good place. They worked hard on the plantation, as hard as working in a factory. S. G.: Did they take their own food to Queensland?
T. T.: Oh yes, they took fruit. You know, the ship sailed for six months, so they needed to take lots of island food.
S. G.: Where did they sleep on the ship?
T. T.: They slept inside it.
S. G.: Did some women go too?
T. T.: Yes, women, men, young people and old people, all wanted to go on the ship.
S. G.: Some of them died in Queensland?
T. T.: Yes, lots died, and some of them came back. Some worked hard to plant coconuts when they came back. They said, "The white man says if you work hard then you will get results." So they worked copra to earn a little money. Before they went to Queensland we didn't have money. Missionaries brought the idea of money, because they bought produce, like food and copra. So the people worked enough copra to fill a small bag for sale. And in those days there weren't too many coconuts.

S. G.: After that,what did they do with their money?
T. T.: They used the money to buy food, like bread. The missionaries taught some young people to bake bread to sell. They also used money to buy tools for working in their gardens.
S.G.: Did they use knives to cut canoes?
T. T.: No, knives aren't good enough to cut canoes. They used clam shell which they sharpened well to become like adzes.
S. G.: How long did they take to make one canoe?
T. T.: Sometimes they would take 2 or 3 years to finish one canoe. [Ed's note This must have been a large ocean-going canoe. Insects would have attacked and destroyed a canoe that was being made for this long]

Missionary Milne came to Nguna and took some men to New Zealand. When they came back they joined the missionary. A ship from Fiji came ashore at the island, and they stole Chief Mariwota's daughter. When the ship came back, the Chief sent his soldiers to wait in the sea, they went to the ship and they killed everyone on the ship. Chief Mariwota did this because they had stolen his daughter.

Master Rodman was from Nguna. He went to Queensland and stayed for some time. He wrote letters back to a friend in Nguna, but he died in the nineteen fifties. Rodman's son is there in Queensland. There is a photo of him with his wife and child,his address is on the back of the photo, but now we've lost it.

Mataso Island, Shepherds Group

Elda Amos: When some Man Mataso came back from Queensland they had a taste for goat, so one of them had brought some goat shit inside his mouth. When their boss checked them, this man didn't say anything because of the shit in his mouth. After he got on the ship, he threw up the shit, and when he got back to Mataso, he tried planting it. He watered it everyday but it never grew anything.
S. G.: That's the time when Mr Milne was here isn't it?
Elda Amos.: Yes, he was here then so that whoever came back from Queensland could go to church on Mataso. They came back with some empty boxes, and some full of clothes, rifles, axes and knives. Some brought all this to Mataso to sell it to the villagers to make money.

Moso Island, north-west Efate

All Man Moso who went to Queensland saw that houses there were made with nails. They said, "These nails are a good thing, so let's take them and plant them back home." They put the nails in their boxes, and when they got back to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), they plnted the nails i nthe ground, because they thought they would grow, like yams, taro and coconuts. But, sorry to say, the nails just rusted way under the earth.

S. G.: Didn't they used to work copra before?
Jif Toni Takai: When they went to Queensland they saw how plantations worked, so when they came back they cleared some country for coconut plantations.

There was one old man, Billy Mase Napau from Matoa village on Nguna, who went to Queensland. When he returned he cleared some ground and planted coconuts. Everyone who planted coconuts produced copra, then they sold it down near Urapua to a trader who came up from Malapoa. They asked Mr Milne if he could get some traders to come and buy cotton and copra so that they could help the church. They paid for the church with wood for making arrows. They straightened the wood in smoke, after they sent it to England or New Zealand so that they could get material for the church back from those countries.

When they needed something else, they sent the arrow wood and got in return whatever they needed for building the church. Peter Milne helped them make the church. There used to be wood for arrows, but the people didn't know how to use it, so Milne showed them, but now they don't know how to do it anymore. All the old people prepared the wood, sometime they would have a ton of it, then they'd put it in a case like a 44 gallon drum, in a wooden box, then send it on a big ship.

Peter Milne thought it would be good if everyone had money. He got an English trader whose name was Hasar to work for a year, then someone else took his place, then a Frenchman, then an Englishman again. The house where they all stayed has now fallen to pieces.

S. G.: So all the locals got to know about money when they went to Queensland?
T. T.: Yes, I think they knew money in Queensland, especially those working on coconut plantations. They saw the white man making money from copra. But some planted island food, like taro and yam.

S. G.: Not like in West Ambae. There they planted too many coconuts and after there wasn't enough ground for gardens so they ended up having to buy food from the store which cost too much. But here there was room for gardens.
T. T.: Yes, the area wasn't too big but people grew yam, taro manioc, but I'm not sure of the story about Ambae. I've read about that in a book. There were plenty of people who went to work the sugarcane in Queensland.
S. G.: There were lots from the Solomons too?
T. T.: Yes, them too.
S. G.: They used to talk their own languages only didn't they?
T. T.: Yes, they only talked their own languages, and they only learned Bislama in Queensland. When they wanted to talk to the others they used sign language, or some learned the languages from other islands. The old people worked hard.

When Peter Milne took the Gospel to the north, he didn't use Bislama or English, he used Ngunese, the local language, because the spirit of God went around the north and made all the people hear what he said. He worked hard until all the local people could read the book and sing the hymns, very hard work! After working on Nguna, he took some of those people and paddled as far as Ambae. People were strong in those days. He used to preach on Kakula island, but there's no-one there today, they all live on the big island. After his 3 o'clock service he paddled to Mataso, Makura and Emae.

These people don't know kastom too much anymore because Peter Milne blocked them from doing kastom things, and he told them, "You are coming into the light. You mustn't go back to darkness." They don't know the kastom stories or kastom life. Tikilasoa is a village that used to be in the bush. Every one leftthat village and went down to the coast and made a new station. The church sits right on a special place called Taloa, Chief Mariwota's tabu place.

S. G.: But why did Chief Mariwota give a kastom tabu place to the missionaries?
T. T.: Chief Mariwota thought that if he gave a tabu place to Peter Milne, all the devils would eat the missionary. Peter cleared the area of the tabu place, but he wasn't sick because the spirit of God was with him. The tabu place was now no longer a tabu place of the devil, it was tabu place for God.

S. G.: Peter Milne didn't like kastom dancing too much?
T. T.: No, he didn't like kastom dance. People from south and north Vanuatu have kastom dances still today. One old man who came back from Queensland, Billy Mase Napau, performed kastom dances. Now everyone dances to bamboo, not to the tamtam as they used to, Peter Milne changed everything. They break bamboo to the size of your hand, then they hit it with a dancing stick. Kastom dancing today is different from what it was before.
S. G.: The way people give mats, pigs, and money at a wedding, is that kastom too?
T. T.: Yes, it is kastom.

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Date Last Modified: 25-September-97	URL: http://artalpha.anu.edu.au/web/arc/vks/blakstor.htm
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