Blackbirding by Ryan Butta
- "Australia has long reassured itself that, despite genocidal treatment of First Nations peoples, at least it has no heinous past of slavery, unlike Britain and the US. Ryan Butta shatters this historical self-deception. The term “blackbirding” (its etymology in the African and West Indies slave trades) involved the coercion and kidnapping of up to 62,000 Pacific Islander people, many children, to labour mostly on Australian sugar cane plantations between 1860 and 1906."
"Long portrayed as somehow “other” than slavery, Butta uses forensic archival work and compelling prose to disturbingly illustrate why this was Australia’s slave trade – and how a colonial who’s-who profited handsomely from it. – Paul Daley " >> https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/05/best-books-to-read-australia-august-2026
- Book :"As Australia becomes more willing to confront the violence and trauma of its colonial past, one chapter has remained largely hidden: the Australian slave trade known as blackbirding." >> https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Blackbirding/Ryan-Butta/9781923135703 #slavery #history #EngineeredForgetting ##Oceanic peoples blackbirding #Australia #sugar #plantations #books #EuropeanColonisation #violence
