A Queensland Museum exhibition is honouring the heritage and contribution of Australian South Sea Islanders, as well as shining a light on a difficult chapter of Australian history.
`Say our Name’ explores the rich cultural identity of Australian South Sea Islanders – the descendants of people brought to Australia as indentured labour to work on sugar cane and cotton farms.
It brings together historical objects, original documents, photographs and digital stories, interwoven with newly commissioned artworks, from descendants of around 60,000 Pacific Islanders who were kidnapped, deceived or taken to Australia under coercion – through the practice known as blackbirding.
The exhibition opened on Saturday August 24 on the eve of the 30th anniversary of their official acknowledgement by the Federal Government as a distinct cultural group.
Exhibition Curator Imelda Miller says the title of the exhibition refers to their ongoing struggle for recognition.
“I took that concept, `Say our Name’, because our names are everything to us. Like our First Nations brothers and sisters, they’re our bloodlines, they’re our connection to people, to places,” Ms Miller says.
“It connects us to our ancestors, ancestral homes back in the Pacific, but it also connects us to our homes here in Australia, in Queensland or wherever we travel to.
“It always brings us back and our names are important to make sure we’re making our connections with one another. And these aren’t just my words, these are the words of the community because we’ve run workshops where people have expressed this to us.
“I feel like it was important for us to really make sure we are saying our name, Australian South Sea Islanders, on the 30th anniversary.”
Ms Miller says Say our Name is a call to acknowledge the past, by highlighting part of Australian history that many still know little about, and to also recognise the ongoing contribution of Australian South Sea Islanders.
“It was really important for Queensland Museum to be able to provide this platform for the Australian South Sea Islander community to tell their stories,” she says.
“And for myself with having Australian South Islander heritage as well, it was really important to advocate and raise our community voices in the exhibition.
“I hope that when you go into the entrance of the exhibition, you see that you’re surrounded by all these names. There’s 160 South Sea Islander family names there because I wanted this to be a celebration of who we are today, and that we are leaving a footprint in the sand here on this 30th anniversary for the next generation.”
The exhibition features artworks from artists including Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Darren Blackman, Luther Cora, Dylan Mooney and Kyra Mancktelow that explore the Australian South Sea Islander identity and their ongoing presence in Australia.
“Something that our First Nations brothers and sisters know all about – being controlled by policy,” she says.
“I wanted to show that we were not just victims, but we were forming communities and identity and connections here in this place.
“What was happening in 1900 when the legislation ordered deportation of South Sea Islanders back to the Pacific, people didn’t want to go. Some people didn’t want to go because they had children here.
“They were advocating for an exemption. And it’s shown here – we have some of the petitions in the exhibition.”
Say our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders is a free exhibition that continues at the Queensland Museum until July 13 2025.
