Title from title frames

Australia's slave trade is an untold story. Few people know that the Australian sugar industry was founded on the sweat of men and women enticed or kidnapped from the islands of the South Pacific. Sugar Slaves is the story of that human traffic, euphemistically known as "blackbirding". Between 1863 and 1904 about 60,000 islanders were transported to the colony of Queensland, where they toiled to create the sugar plantations of the far north. Then, after the introduction of a White Australia policy, most were deported. A few thousand were permitted to remain and today north Queensland is home to 20,000 of their descendants. In 1994 Australian Islanders at last won official recognition as a distinct ethnic group. According to a Government sponsored report, it has suffered "a century of racial discrimination and harsh treatment..." Now Islanders are beginning to trace their history and are finding their long-lost relatives in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and other Pacific nations. A unique community-;the only substantial black migrant group in Australia-;is at last uncovering the little known story of Australia's sugar slaves. A Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced in association with Annamax Media and Arcadia Films with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Copyright - 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Executive Producer: Sharon Connolly Producer: Penny Robins (Producer), Trevor Graham (Co-Producer) Director: Trevor Graham Writer: Jean-Jacques Portail, Jonathan Holmes (Narration) DOP/Cinematographer: John Whitteron, Jenni Meaney (Additional Cinematography) Narrator/Presenter: Jonathan Holmes Featured People: Grace Molisa, Chief John Aroo, Chief Selwyn Liliu, Marlene Henaway, Noah Sabbo, Joe Leo, Monica Leo, Des Eggmolesse, Cecily Eggmolesse, Phyllis Corowa, Dr Clive Moore, Ross Fitzgerald

In Process Record

Originally produced by National Film and Sound Archive of Australia in 1995

Mode of access: World Wide Web

In English