Society > Community Groups > Australian South Sea Islanders - Port Jackson
Australian South Sea Islanders - Port JacksonAustralian South Sea Islanders - Port Jackson is the most energetic, ambitious and surprising community group in Pyrmont. Inspired by Chairwoman (Waskam) Emelda Davis, ASSI-PJ celebrates the Island heritage of Australian South Sea Islanders, their many contributions to Australian society, and their formal recognition in 1994. The Port Jackson chapter is also the interim national body, campaigning for the Commonwealth and Queensland to compensate the community for financial and other harm endured during the blackbirding era, and after federation.
A vivid expression of ASSI-PJ’s vision and organisational skill is the celebration of 25 years of recognition, at a flag-raising ceremony at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) in August 2019, addressed by dignitaries, including the Foreign Ministers of Vanuatu and Australia. ASSI national recognition day falls annually on the 25th August. The ANMM are the first national organisation to fly the ASSI flag and have committed to do so every year from hereon.
From their website:
The major roles and functions of ASSI-PJ are to represent the interests of the ASSI members in Australia, supporting and promoting ASSI culture as well as economic, social and educational interests as one of the many contributing cultures of non-European origin in Australia.
Our long-term vision is to establish trust between our ASSI / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) and Pacific Island (PI) communities of origin within and beyond Australia and through fostering open dialogue and sharing of information to act as a leadership organisation to ensure full and fair participation of ASSI people within the wider Australian community.
Our short term goals are to help create healing, family connection and capacity building amongst ASSI people to help remedy the dispossession, alienation, disadvantage and traumas caused to the many families who suffered during the Blackbirding era. This will be delivered through interactive workshops conducted in key populations in Australia and the Pacific urban centres where participants of ASSI origin will be encouraged to share history and knowledge with a view to creating a greater community awareness of the ASSI histories during and post the Blackbirding period.
PO Box 117, Pyrmont
email: assi.pj@gmail.com
mobile: 0416 300 946
web: www.assipj.com.au
Related Items
Documentary
Further Reading
Photos by Aboriginal/ASSI photographer Ms Lola Forester and Pyrmont History Group member Paul Lancaster