Cocos Islands Plantation

Cartographic Name

Identifier

SITE-COIIRC

Contained in place

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

category

Plantation

temporalCoverage

1826-1984, 2001-2002

sourceOrganization

Straits Settlement Authority, Department of Immigration and Border Protection

text

"Yang Nenek misi muda, kita tompok batu (di Belakang Pulu) dari di laot mu bikin jalan. Kita tak pakek apapa di kakik kita, bedara-dara kenak picaan botol. Dorang tak sediahkan kita sepatu kerjaan. Kakik-kakik kita bedara dari kenak batu dan kulit gong-gong. Kita pigi di clinic untuk tutup lukak kita, abis pigi clinic kita balek lagi sambung pekerjaan kita. Kita balek lagi di laot, jalan atas batu dan kulit gong-gong lagi! Di ukum kita, Nenek rasa Nenek paya ma Tuan John. Di lumpur kita, bawak keranjang penoh batu/paser untuk bikin jalan. Di bayar 3 rupiah duit gading, satu minggu! / When I was young, we used to collect rocks at the back of the island to build roads. We didn’t have shoes on, so our feet would bleed from broken glass bottles. They didn’t provide us safety boots whatsoever. Our feet and legs bled from rocks and gong-gong shells. We would go to the clinic to get patched up only to get back in the water and walk in rocks, shell AGAIN. We were punished, I felt that I was struggling working for John Clunies Ross. We were working in the muds, carrying baskets full of rocks and sand to build roads. We were paid 3 rupiah per week! (Nek Lukman (Roja Sebie))" Testimonial Anthology. Aindil, Sofiya Athirah. 40 Tahun 40 Cerita: 40 Years, 40 Stories. Shire of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, 2024, p.4.

"We dreamed of a new home somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, where we, the Aymaras, descendants of the Incas, might live free and independent as had our ancestors … only when the brig was well down in the Indian Ocean did we hit upon that spot of land which seemed to serve our purpose. On Cocos, one of the Keeling Islands, we buried that which we could not keep, intending to return with our people and there found a colony." Imperial Adventure Fiction. Otis, James. The Treasure of Cocos Island: A Story of the Indian Ocean. A. L. Burt Company, 1902, p.12.

"Clunies-Ross’s vision was for him to control his people. He had a good life. He was just like God – King of the Island; that’s what they called him. The kids lined up and said, ‘Good morning, sir’ (Bilton bin Neckery) " Missionary/Settlement History. Hobson, Valerie. Our Island Home. Frontier Services, 2008, p.38.

"The other thing I’ve always wanted to do is something good for these people. Not the West Islanders, the drunken bastards, but the Cocos Malays. Now they’ve got some stories to tell … Do you know, they might have been freed from the Clunies-Ross family, they might be able to vote - and for a mainland government they have little or no knowledge of, in which most of the politicians wouldn’t even know of their existence, never mind their being part of Australia, or their own particular conditions - but they’re still prisoners" Experimental Narrative. Kinsella, John. Post-colonial: A Récit. Papertiger Media, 2009, p.105.

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