Blackbirding refers to the recruitment of people through alleged trickery and kidnappings to work on plantations, particularly the sugar cane plantations of Queensland. Queensland was a self-governing British colony in northeastern Australia until 1901 when it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. Over a period of 40 years, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labourers for the sugar cane fields of Queensland, were "recruited" from Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoan Islands. The "recruitment" process almost always included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude. Some 62,000 South Sea Islanders were taken to Australia.

These people were referred to as Kanakas and came from the Western Pacific islands: from Melanesia, mainly the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, with a small number from the Polynesian and Micronesian islands such as Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu Loyalty Islands. Although it was officially denied, and they were referred to as "indentured labourers," many workers were in fact slaves. Some Australian Aboriginal people, especially from Cape York Peninsula, were also kidnapped and transported south to work on the plantations.

The question of how many Islanders were actually kidnapped or "blackbirded" is unknown and remains controversial. Official documents and accounts from the period often conflict with the oral tradition passed down to the descendants of workers. Stories of blatantly violent kidnapping tended to relate to the first 10–15 years of the trade. The majority of those abducted to Australia were repatriated between 1906-08 under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (^*); but there are still many descendants of the blackbirded labourers living in Queensland coastal towns.

See also

• South Sea Islander
• Coolies

Colonialism | History of Australia | History of Fiji | History of Oceania | History of the Solomon Islands | History of Vanuatu | Human rights abuses | Labor