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history with laetitia: blackbirding
in the 1860s white australians kidnapped thousands of melanesian islanders to supplement the burgeoning sugarcane industry, its unlikely we'll ever know how many islanders became victim to this because there were so little records kept.
i just think its important to bring this up because one of the reasons papua new guinea, fiji, etc. were targeted was because of the specifically black population, its the reason that a singularly defined notion of "pasifika" can never be accurate.
slavers weren't targeting polynesians, asian people, or anyone else often lumped in with melanesians. melanesians exist within black spaces and islander spaces simultaneously and as such are subject to the prejudices faced by these groups.
