Gender, indenture, and the work of remembering

In February, a room at ANU became a space for reckoning—where scholarship met memory, and history was spoken not just from the archive, but from lived experience. Convened by Emerita Professor Margaret Jolly, a workshop on gender and indenture brought together scholars, artists, and descendants to confront the layered histories of unfreedom across the Pacific. Hosted by Margaret with Penny Edmonds (Flinders University), Margaret Mishra (University of the South Pacific, Suva), and Imeda Miller (Queensland Museum), the workshop was an extraordinarily moving event. It brought together scholars, artists, and curators, many of whom are descendants of those indentured from across the Pacific, grounding academic discussion in lived experience. At its core was a focus on indentured women and the ways gendered and sexual violence compounded the already brutal conditions of forced labour and displacement. Discussions traced connections between the blackbirding of Pacific peoples—from islands that are now part of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu—and the indenture of Indians sent to work on plantations in Fiji.  

Working with the past, responsibly  

A key thread throughout was how such histories might be engaged with care. Participants reflected on the critical use of archives and oral histories, on collaboration with descendant communities, and on the role of creative and artistic practice in redressing past violence. This work carries risk—particularly the risk of retraumatisation for descendants. Yet participants also spoke to the importance of creating a space where these histories could be shared, examined, and held with sensitivity. Scholars, staff, and graduate students from across ANU, especially CHL and DPA, contributed thoughtful and innovative presentations.  

Art as truth-telling: Jasmine Togo-Brisby  

Particular attention was given to the work of visiting contributors, including Jasmine Togo-Brisby, a fourth-generation Australian South Sea Islander artist and truth-teller. Her great-great-grandparents were taken from Vanuatu in 1899, a history that continues to shape her practice. Her work Bitter sweet (2015–2022) uses sugar and resin to create a mound of life-sized skulls, responding to the discovery of a mass unmarked grave on a Bundaberg sugar plantation. The piece was initiated on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the recognition of Australian South Sea Islanders as a distinct cultural group. In later works, Togo-Brisby presents black-and-white photographs of herself, her mother, and her daughter dressed in nineteenth-century clothing, using the collodion-on-glass technique. These images bring the experiences of her female ancestors starkly into the present, collapsing temporal distance in powerful ways. Her work is further explored in Jasmine Togo Brisby: ungeographic, published by Pataka Art+Museum in Porirua, New Zealand, which offers a survey and celebration of her practice.