Arabic version: تزايد الدعوات للاعتراف بتاريخ «البلاكبيردنغ»

According to The Guardian, renewed attention is being given to the role that colonial figures including Robert Towns played in the forced or coerced migration of Pacific Islanders for labour, a practice known as blackbirding. The report says Towns, whose name remains attached to Townsville in north-east Queensland, has often been portrayed as a merchant and entrepreneur.

About 62,000 Pacific Islanders were trafficked to Australia between 1860 and 1906, the article says. Many, mostly men and boys, were forced to work in Queensland’s sugar industry in appalling conditions. It reports that 15,000 died on plantations, while others worked on Sydney docks, in maritime industries and elsewhere.

Author Ryan Butta’s book, Blackbirding – A reckoning with the Australian slave trade, examines colonial Sydney’s mercantile interests in the trade and profits linked to Colonial Sugar Refining Company sugar production. Butta describes Towns as “the founding father of Australian slavery”, according to the article. It also identifies John Mackay, after whom the Queensland city is named, as a blackbirder.

The Guardian report says Towns owned ships used for blackbirding, while other vessels in his Sydney-berthed fleet were crewed by blackbirded Pacific Islanders. His wharf, known as Rotten Row, relied on blackbirded labour. A sign at Towns Place Wharf still celebrates his trading activity, while the former sugar wharves are now a harbourside park honouring the old CSR refinery.

The article argues that statues and place names can be used to explain fuller historical records rather than removed. Towns’ statue on Townsville’s Pioneer’s Walk was vandalised in 2020, when its hands were painted red. The report proposes additional historical plaques and recognition for South Sea Islander activist Bonita Mabo, as well as a monument to the South Sea Islanders whose forced labour supported the colonies.