It may be a surprise to a lot of people that there were people kidnapped and enslaved in Australia. South Sea Islanders were captured by slave traders and sold to work on the sugar cane plantations of Queensland. It is an aspect of our history that doesn’t get much recognition.
The First Nations peoples of Australia were also enslaved.
Thinking about the way white Australians refuse to accept the truths of colonisation, genocide, and slavery, has got me thinking about history books. Full of fine black lines- that shape letters, words, chapters. What do the fine black lines communicate and what do they leave out?
The lines don’t make the choices.
A truth writ large
Forced, unforced
Enslaved by, divorced
from history
our story
by a fine black line
That negates
things that don't calculate
with the version
we regurgitate.
It didn't happen
and even if it did,
You've got it misshapen:
There should be gratitude
for the inconvenience of servitude:
We let them learn to read,
gave religion for souls in need.
Controlling the fine black line is never random
"you can't judge the past by today's standard",
So do not cast your eyes
to December 18, 1865.
Angele Toomey Poetry 
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