Yumi Wansolwara @ Pirrama Park

To register for this festival click on below link:

https://events.humanitix.com/yumi-wansolwara-you-and-me-one-salt-water


Registration  Here:

  • Address: PIRRAMA PARK – 20 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont, Sydney NSW (Darling Harbour precinct)
  • Time: 11:30am (sharp) to 6pm

Transport: 501 bus from Central, 389 bus from QVB City, Tram from Central to John Street Square (stops directly up from park), Taxi – 5 minutes from Central Station)

(scenic views & swimming at your own risk @ the Sugar Wharf on Sydney Harbour)

Program: Music & Culture Festival

  • MARK MERRIMAN – Sydney Harbour Elders smoking
  • BISLAMA ACKNOWLEDGEMENT – Vanuatu High Commissioner to Australia
  • SONG BLONG YUMI – Icomply Vanuatu women’s business
  • DOONOOCH (Aboriginal traditional dance)
  • MARGRET CAMPBELL – Dreamtime Southern X
  • CEDAR BALA’s & UNCLE TAT WHALEBOAT (Torres Strait Island custom)
  • SOLOMON ISLAND DANCERS (custom)
  • VANUATU STRING BAND – Icomply Vanuatu mens business
  • DOMO Ni CAKAU Band (Fijian)
  • GARI – Funk Soul Groove (Papua New Guinea)

BYO food basket (seating, cafe and restaurant also available on the water with views of park)

 

 

Nasara – Yarning, Australia Day 2022 mini fest

Supported by the AUSTRALIA DAY COUNCIL & presented by AUSTRALIAN SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS ( PORT JACKSON )

CLICK HERE TO SECURE TICKETS

A day to Reflect on our rich and diverse culturally cohesive history, Respect< for truth telling narratives as part of the great Australian stori and Celebrate resilience and cultural diversity. An inclusive and diverse program representative of our leaders from ASSI Tweed Heads/Sydney, Vanuatu, local Aboriginal elders, Torres Strait Islands, Caribbean, Tonga, Fiji, Tokelau and Samoan community.

 

PROGRAM:
Welcome to country
– Mark Merriman (Sydney Harbour Elders)
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS:
Pacific Climate Warrior
– Joseph Zane Sikulu, 350.ORG
BLACKISTORY Yarning:
– Wilo Muwadda
– Mike Butler (Sydney Harbour Elders)
PERFORMANCES:
  • Yaba kerker otaba (YKO) Future Generations (Torres Strait Islands)
  • Pacific Pearl (Tonga reflection & custom dance)
  • Pacifica Jewels (ASSI / Vanuatu / Indigenous contemporary)
  • KYX (Caribbean Pacific Hip Hop fusion)
  • Pusiki (Sydney’s own reggae soul sensation)
  • Spirit of the Islands Dance Company

The Nasara is the Vanuatu term for meeting place and Yarning is a common practice of tok tok (talking) amongst our indigenous peoples. Wansalwara means ‘one salt water’ … we are kin through ocean connections.

MEDIA RELEASE 20th September 2021

Sugar Fest 2022 Oceanic Culture History & Music collaboration with United Kingdom – Youth Link Networks director Naomi Grossett

Australian South Sea Islanders (Port Jackson) are pleased to announce the Sugar Fest 2022 will be collaborating with Founding Director of Youth Link Networks from the United Kingdom Ms. Naomi Grossett in raising the bar for the annual ASSIPJ national recognition festival.

In 2022 Sugar Fest Oceanic Culture History & Music will continue their collaborative relationships with Pacific owned Last Minute Productions-Glebe, New South Wales State government agencies, Pacific, CALD and First Nations community groups, artists and educators.

Ms. Grossett is excited to re-join the ASSIPJ team in the country as she was previously a volunteer at the 25th Anniversary Dignitary Flag raising with the Australian National Maritime Museum and assisted with event coordination at the inaugural Sugar Fest @ Pyrmont Park. To date Ms. Grosset remains a cultural diversity and sustainability advisor as part of ASSIPJs – Wantok Strategy team.

Ms. Grossett says… “In 2022 we hope the program will expand significantly with a stronger focus on youth representation inclusive of a live cross to regions throughout NSW and the United Kingdom as a cross cultural experience via social media broadcast platforms.”

Ms. Emelda Davis, chair of ASSIPJ says… “Our board are excited to bring a fresh and new perspective to Sugar Fest through the younger generation on our board and Ms. Grossett with an international flavour through her existing networks and sustainability skill base having worked with marginalised communities on innovation and capacity building initiatives.”

Due to the global pandemic ASSIPJ have worked extensively online via zoom and various social media platforms in recruiting new and existing youth via Pacific, CALD and Indigenous Communities. As a safety net in light of pandemic restrictions and fluctuation Sugar Fest is to develop an online portal to further engage and provide access to untapped youth and emerging talents that require genuine opportunities to start businesses and build income for their future.

This strategy will also contribute to building the New South Wales economy through a collective of sustainable innovative concepts during this difficult time.

Our event is scheduled for the festive season of February or first half of 2022 located at a Sugar Wharf venue yet to be announced in promoting an array of cultural specific stalls, yarning circles on youth advancement and networking platforms for social media greater engagement and implementing a micro business wellness forum.

Ms. Grossett will be in Australia later this year to lead the organisation of Sugar Fest 2022 and to progress negotiations and planning with New South Wales State government agencies and further negotiations with community, youth and funding partners.

ASSIPJ would like to acknowledge just a few of the confirmed supporters for this great initiative the City of Sydney Council, Australian National Maritime Museum, Australian Museum, Pyrmont Historical Society, JMC Academy, Scarred Tree Indigenous Ministries, NSW Council for Pacific Communities and local Harris Street Village businesses.

More community networks: CLICK HERE

Media inquiries – call: 0416 300 946

Different Colours One People Festivals

Different Colours One PeopleSydney CBD is home to a wealth of artistry across our marginalised first nations and people of colour diaspora derived from a global Indigenous community therefore our events will be showcase local artists within the CBD precincts of Glebe and Redfern as a much-needed promotion of human interaction in open healing spaces while adhering to a new way of public life guided by government health restriction.

  • Free Water available on sight (bring refill water bottles).
  • Food and fete stalls.
  • Sanitising Stations on Arrival.
  • BYO Snacks or Food basket.
  • Some Blankets and 50 chairs will be provided for early birds.

These are FREE events – however due to CovidSafe restrictions, numbers are limited and registration is required. Further information can be found by clicking the venue links below.

EVENTS WILL BE HELD AT:

Glebe: St Johns Church (Parklands) Glebe
138a Glebe Point Rd, Glebe NSW 2037

Sat 22nd May 2021, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm AEST

Get Tickets Glebe

 

Redfern: Redfern Community Centre
29-53 Hugo St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia

Sat 29th May 2021, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm AEST

Get Tickets Redfern

COVID-19 Safety Planning

COVID-19 Safety PlanIn order to protect our visitors, customers, volunteers and staff during these times, ASSI-PJ are working closely with the NSW Government to meet the highest level of safety standards – which includes implementing organisational health procedures along with additional staff and volunteer training.

Click the links below to review our revised COVID management plans (updated 11-1-2021):
COVID-19 Business Plan
COVID-19 Safe Events Plan

And read THIS LINK to stay informed about enjoying a COVID-Safe Australia day.

Press Release for Launch of Hardwork: Australian South Sea Islanders Bibliography.

PROFESSOR CLIVE MOOREIt is hypocritical of the Morrison Government to assure Pacific Islands nations of Australia’s good intentions when the Australian Government has never dealt adequately with problems within its own Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) community. Two major issues have been caused by the Australian Government.

One dates back to Federation: the deportation of the majority of original Islanders in the 1900s as part of the White Australia Policy. This was an attempt to remove an entire ethnic group—to cleanse the new nation of its Pacific immigrants. The second issue is inadvertent but none the less damaging. It relates to public service initiatives aimed at assisting Indigenous Australians since the 1960s.

The three governments need to take into consideration that policies aimed at assisting First Australians have damaged the ASSI community. The 1967 referendum enabled the Commonwealth to take control of Indigenous affairs and count First Peoples in the national census. The creation of a modern bureaucracy to administer First Peoples’ affairs led to the alienation of ASSI, both at the level of actions by the public service and by definitions which left them outside schemes to provide special assistance.

While no one begrudges the overdue special assistance to Indigenous Australians, it has had inadvertent consequences in straining relationships at an individual, family, community and government level. Today’s ASSI are descended from immigrants with strong kin links to Indigenous Australians. ASSI were once considered an integral part of the Australian Black community. Yet today they are categorized as immigrants, ignoring the similar issues they face with their First Australian brothers and sisters, and their close kin relations with First Australians.

Hardwork, a bibliography of over 1,400 sources on Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI), has been released as part of celebrations marking the first arrival of ASSI in NSW in 1847 and in Queensland in 1860. The Australian, Queensland and New South Wales Governments will find its useful in their considerations.

I have prepared the bibliography at a time when Indigenous Queenslanders in July 2019 were awarded $190 million as a settlement relating to Hans Pearson v State of Queensland in the Federal Court of Australia. The Queensland Government made a settlement and avoided a final Federal Court decision, although the Federal Court will supervise the financial distribution.

This was a class action to recover wages taken from Indigenous Queenslanders over several decades, which detailed the extraordinary and draconian conditions under which Indigenous Queenslanders were forced to live, and the Acts of Parliament which controlled their lives.

The original immigrant ASSI and their children were also bound by Acts of Parliament passed specifically to control their lives, and a 1901 Commonwealth Act aimed at total deportation of all ASSI. There are many similarities between the conditions faced by ASSI and Indigenous Queenslanders. This is not the place to argue the case; in a sense the whole Hardwork bibliography does that in outline.

Over recent years, there have been discussions between lawyers and ASSI associations over the possibility of mounting a class action. These discussions will continue, now in part fuelled by the July 2019 award by the Queensland Government. Hardwork documents many of the necessary sources. The misuse of the wages of dead Islanders held in the Pacific Islanders Fund and the possible misuse of Islander bank accounts—just as with similar funds belonging to Indigenous Queenslanders—may yet drive a class action against both the Queensland and Australian Governments.

Although most of the abuse was at the hands of the Queensland Government, the Australian Government is implicated because it used Queensland’s Fund to pay for the deportation process in the 1900s. ASSI intermarriage with both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples adds complexity, as could the involvement of various Pacific Islands’ nations in any class action.

This year NAIDOC Week had three themes: Voice, Treaty and Truth. The truth needs to be told about Indigenous Australians, but also about immigrant Pacific Islander descendants from the Blackbirding years. If I can nudge the governments into owning up to their past and their responsibilities to the present ASSI generation, all the better.

One basic suggestion is that it would useful if the historical sources could be collected in one place and housed in a library so that ASSI can have easy access. Digital access should be easy to accomplish to enhance the availability. As part of this, all ASSI oral history collections should be made available as part of building understanding within and of the community.

There is much more to do in acknowledging Australia’s past relations with the Pacific Islands. Pacific nations realise this, although all Australian governments remains shy of their responsibilities. My challenge to all three governments is to be honest and to help heal past damage if they truly want a good relationship with their Pacific neighbours.

Clive Moore
Emeritus Professor
School of historical and Philosophical Inquiry
The University of Queensland

Press Release for Launch of Hardwork: Australian South Sea Islanders Bibliography:

1. DOWNLOAD : a copy of this Press Release (100kb pdf file) HERE.

2. DOWNLOAD : your copy of: HARDWORK: AUSTRALIAN SOUTH SEA ISLANDER BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY AND THE PACIFIC LABOUR TRADE (1.6mb pdf file)

Message from the Prime Minister – The Hon Scott Morrison MP

Scott-MorrisonFrom the arrival of the Don Juan at the port of Brisbane in 1863, generations of South Sea Islanders have had a lasting influence on the social, cultural and economic life of our nation.

Despite immense hardship and discrimination, the community’s story is one of survival and resilience. It is a story worthy of reflection and remembrance.It is also a story of contribution and achievement as well.

Australian South Sea Islanders are today represented across many prominent fields of endeavour, and there is growing appreciation of the community’s unique story in our nation’s shared history. We remember also the Australian South Sea Islanders who have served as members of the defence force in times of peace and war.

The Commonwealth’s recognition of the community as a distinct cultural group was an important step in an ongoing journey of understanding, and affirmed the special place of Australian South Sea Islanders within the fabric of our nation.

As you gather in celebration of the 25th anniversary of that momentous day, I join you in reflecting with pride and gratitude on the immense contribution Australian South Sea Islanders have made to our nation’s success and to the ongoing ties of friendship we share with the people of the South Seas.

[Signature]
The Hon Scott Morrison MP
Prime Minister of Australia
12 August 2019

Download copy of the original letter HERE (pdf format)

Video interview by Indigenous filmmaker Steven McGregor with Emelda Davis

Video interview by Indigenous filmmaker Steven McGregor with Emelda Davis about NSW Entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd for Servant or Slave – NITV documentary.


Today ASSI people remain marginalized, unrecognized, and even unknown to exist as citizens of Australia, with their labour contribution to the nation’s economic base hidden in history, and their own history hidden even from themselves as a community.

The term “Australian South Sea Islander” refers to the Australian descendants of people from more than 80 islands in the Western Pacific including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides) in Melanesia, the Loyalty Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Rotuma (Fiji), Tuvalu in Polynesia and Micronesia who were recruited to the indentured labour trade which was akin to slavery, and started in NSW in 1847 (through Benjamin Boyd), with an influx to QLD between 1863-1908, to work and establish Australia’s economic base in sugar cane, maritime and pastoral industries.

ASSI have an evident kinship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities given their historical demographic through the labour trade and interracial marriage which sees today 100’s of families with direct Aboriginal bloodlines or marriage into Aboriginal families. The Torres Strait is more prominent in that and influx of ASSI were taken into the Torres Strait for pearling and bêche-de-mer industries as well as through the London Missionary Society from 1870 onwards. The most significant ASSI ‘colony’ is on Mua (St Pauls) Island, established by the Anglican Church in the 1900s.

Servant Or Slave: Stunning New Documentary Exposes Australia’s Stolen Wages History

To read the New matilda story click HERE

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