Hidden Voices: Exploring South Sea Islander Narratives in the James Cook University Library’s Special Collections

Archival collections contribute to identity formation and maintenance, yet they can be places of silence and exclusion. This Research Note explores the capacity for the James Cook University Library’s William Sloane and Co., Charles Young, Bowen Downs Station, Ayr Tramway Joint Board, and Henry Braby and Co. collections to tell the stories of South Sea Islanders in north Queensland. It finds that South Sea Islander voices were selectively included and excluded in these records, although fragmentary evidence of South Sea Islander agency, particularly their efforts to negotiate wages under exploitative conditions survive. These findings emphasise the silences, ambiguities and omissions that individuals, communities, archivists and researchers must navigate in their efforts to construct South Sea Islander narratives of the past.