Wantok Islanders’ efforts to gain recognition takes shape
THE word “Wantok” is Pijin for “one talk”, or “somebody who speaks my language”. It has been adapted more broadly by Australia’s South Sea Islander community to mean “welcome” or “a gathering”. About 62,000 islanders from Vanuatu, the Solomons and numerous other Pacific islands were kidnapped (or “blackbirded”) and brought to Australia from 1847 to…