PrintMuslim Journeys
The crew of a pearl lugger, Broome, c. 1900–20.Muslim migrants were crucial to the development of the pearlshelling industry along Australia’s northern coast. In the late 19th century, so-called ‘Malays’ from South-East Asia were brought to Australia to work as indentured labourers in the shell-rich waters around Thursday Island, Darwin and Broome.
Photograph courtesy National Archives
Australia has a long history of Muslim settlement, from Afghan camel drivers in the nineteenth century through to recent arrivals from Africa. But until recently, the richness and complexity of this history has been little recognised. The National Archives of Australia, in partnership with the former Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, embarked upon an ambitious project to help preserve and document this history
Using hundreds of records from its collection, the National Archives worked with award-winning author Hanifa Deen to create the website that would tell some of these forgotten stories. Using letters, photographs, government applications, court transcripts and other records held by the National Archives, a goldmine of material and ‘a cast of Muslim characters’ were uncovered. Ms Deen, whose Muslim grandfathers both came to Australia as hawkers from India in the 1890s, was even able to find previously unknown information about her own family heritage.
The result of this work is the website Muslim Journeys. It is a broad-ranging collective biography which provides a glimpse into the times, the challenges early Muslim Australians faced and the enormous contribution they have made and continue to make to our nation.
Muslim Journeys was a joint winner of the 2008 Australian Society of Archivists’ Mander Jones Award for the ‘best publication that uses features or interprets Australian archives, written by or on behalf of a corporate body’.
Muslim Journeys can be seen at www.uncommonlives.naa.gov.au.
