Ryan Butta Author Talk - Blackbirding
Kiama Library
Between 1860 and 1906, more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders were brought to Australia to work the Queensland sugarcane fields. Men, women and children were taken from their homelands through coercion, deception or outright abduction. Forced into contracts they could not read, unpaid until the end of their service and denied basic rights, they endured brutal working conditions that led to the deaths of nearly 15,000 people.
Leading historical author Ryan Butta confronts one of the least acknowledged episodes in Australian history.
Exposing a deliberate 'engineered forgetting' that has kept these stories out of the national memory, Ryan will bring the hidden history of blackbirding into the light. He will be interviewed by KHS vice president Tony Gilmour.
