Raising the South Sea Islanders flag at Petersham Town Hall and Pedestrian Safety

In 2018, Inner West Council voted unanimously to support the Australian South Sea Islanders community by:

• Flying the Flag of the Australian South Sea Islands annually on South Sea Islander Recognition Day on 25 August.
• Liaising with the Australian South Sea Islanders Secretariat to investigate the inclusion of an Australian South Sea Islander mural as part of Council’s Perfect Match program in 2019.
• Making Australian South Sea Islander historical resources available at Council libraries as soon as the academic information comes available.

"Among the first laws passed by the new Australian parliament in 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia came into being was the Pacific Island Labourers Act, ordering the deportation of black Melanesian workers known as kanakas.
Other aspects of what became known as the White Australia Policy have since been rectified, but this shameful stain on our past has yet to be properly addressed.".... Justice for the kanakas: Australia’s ‘invisible’ Melanesians, Frank Jordan, August 2, 2018

"Australian South Sea Islanders – Port Jackson (assipj) represent the descendants of the Blackbirding trade that saw some 62,500 Pacific Islanders trafficked from the eighty islands of Vanuatu and Solomon’s to established sugar, maritime, pastoral, cotton and railways industries. 

In 1847 NSW received the first 119 Sugar Slaves with the influx to Queensland between 1863-1908. Through community advocacy and support from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission the 1994 Commonwealth recognised Australian South Sea Islanders as ‘a distinct cultural group’." . . . . .
http://www.assipj.com.au/

Crossing Crystal Street, Petersham Town Hall

Stanmore Road Crossing at John Street

Trucks Stanmore Road, at John Street

Truck turning into Crystal Street from Stanmore Road, while cyclists look out

Westconnex Truck turning into Crystal Street from Stanmore Road