Circuitous Routes

Abstract

The chapter traces the history of several families whose ancestors migrated as indentured labourers to sugar plantations in Fiji, the Caribbean, and to the French colonies of Réunion and New Caledonia. Once indenture ended these migrant workers travelled to Australia in search of a better life. These stories of migration across imperial boundaries, struggle against racial discrimination and restrictive immigration rules offer evidence of agency and enterprise, rather than benign profiles of helpless indentured labourers. This chapter sheds new light on the issues of gender and agency in migrant lives through the stories of matriarchs who showed courage and enterprise in keeping their families united and making a living in the hostile environment of colonial Australia. It also traces intergenerational mobility and shows how the later generations proudly reconstruct that genealogy of displacement, discrimination and agency as badges of their historic transnational identity.