The first ever initiated ‘FAEDEM FAMILI’ workshop to reconnect history of Solomon Islands descendants taken and worked in the sugarcane farms in Queensland, Australia, will end today.
Conducted by the Australian South Sea Islanders with Professor Clive Moore in partnership with the National Museum and Archives of Solomon Islands, the workshop seeks to link up the gaps in history.
A local participant, John Moli told the Sunday Star the initiative is helping them to reconnect with their descendants in Queensland.
He said at the first place he did not know how to do the linking up although their family knew very well that they do have descendants there.
“Such an initiative is greatly appreciated and we are hoping that through this workshop we will come to terms and re-establish our connections,” Moli said.
“This missing link and untold history like records of history similar to that of African slavery is important to us,” he added.
Moli said what has been so helpful during the first day of the workshop was theye came to know the intentions behind black birding.
“While we think otherwise of it as employment opportunity, it was actually the other way around; they were actually taken forcefully for cheap labour,” he said.
He added the workshop shed some lights to their minds, which had been left in doubt for ages.
BY BRADFORD THEONOMI
