Kanakas

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For other uses, see Kanaka.

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Kanaka labourers on a Queensland pineapple plantation, 1890s. Photographer unknown.

The Kanakas were workers from various Pacific Islands employed under varying conditions in various British colonies, such as Fiji, Queensland (Australia) and British Columbia (Canada), and also in California, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

1 Australasia
2 Canada
3 See also
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Australasia

The term Kanaka is generally regarded in Australasia as outdated and inaccurate, and was not used by many of the people concerned.^{[citation needed]}

In Australasia, though not in North America, Kanakas were often unfree labour, of the specific form known as indentured labour. It is sometimes alleged that their employment in Australia was a form of slavery. This is because some Kanakas were recruited by kidnapping (or "blackbirding" as the practice was known at the time). However, historians such as Keith Windschuttle (in his book The White Australia Policy) have disputed this.

Australia repatriated many Kanakas to their places of origin between 1906 and 1908 under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 [1]. However some remained in Australia; their descendants generally refer to themsleves as South Sea Islanders.

[edit] Canada

In Canada, many Kanaka men married first nation women^[1], and their descendants can still be found in British Columbia and neighbouring parts of Canada and the United States. Canadian Kanakas were all Hawaiian in origin. Nearly all were contractees of the Hudson's Bay Company although some had arrived in the area as ship's hands or, in some cases, migrated north from the California..