I'm involved in a project making wallhangings for the Museum of Australian Democracy & City of Sydney Council to commemorate the South Sea Islanders brought to Australia as slaves (oops, fancy typing that, they really signed work agreements!!) in the 19 & early 20th century.

Info on the project here https://www.instagram.com/helenfraser_artist/ under Yumi Olgeta (= 'you & me together' in Bislama language) - scroll down to pic of 2 metre long wallhanging on the floor. I'm not on instagram so can't look at the pics.

I originally saw a workshop on Council's What's site on so went along & started learning about the Blackbirding days & started sewing islander motifs. Aunties from the community talked about their ancestors & their own ives - 12 & 14 year old boy & girl taken from 2 islands certainly did not sign anything. The first Blackbirder, Ben Boyd had a tartan & we were given printed reproduction pieces of this pattern to use!

turning this into a music thread, here's one of Phil d'Conch's contributions - Note: Fijian shanghai.
“...Other plans have also been adopted. One of the best known is perhaps that of counterfeiting a missionary ship. A white macintosh coat has done duty for a surplice, the ship's log-book for a Prayer Book; and as no one could sing a hymn, the sailors joined in chanting that impressive ditty, 'Give me some time to blow the man down.' The natives were then invited below to prayers, and a barrel of biscuit left open as if by accident. Many went down to the hold, but on attempting to return found the hatches had closed over them….”
[Two Years in Fiji, by Litton Forbes. London, Longmans,1875]