Pacific Island Migrations: From Plantations to PALM workers

This panel talk is a part of an event series: Land Justice and Climate Futures, presented by Sujatha Fernandes. The series brings together Indigenous and people of colour scholars, writers, and activists to explore land justice at a time of climate crisis and mass labour migration.

Date and time: 23 August 2025, 2-4pm

Location: Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre, 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown

Under colonialism, the livelihoods of people across the Pacific Islands were transformed. Colonial powers exploited the minerals, forests, and oceans of the Pacific Islands region, and by the mid-nineteenth century they turned the islands into labour reserves for their plantation economies. Like the Blackbirds of the nineteenth century who were brought to work on Australian sugar plantations, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme workers of today face similar exploitation.

This event brings together advocates and writers to consider how Pacific Islander peoples in the diaspora have maintained their connection to home across waves of migration and displacement, most recently due to ecological changes in their homelands. How do they express the spiritual associations between people and the earth? How do they tell stories of the land and diaspora?

About the Speakers:

Rosaline Parker 

Rosaline Parker is a dedicated Pasifika advocate and cultural consultant based in Western Sydney. She plays an active role in community leadership as a member of the Blacktown City Council Multicultural and Women’s Advisory Boards and serves as Co-Chair of the Pacific Women’s Collective. Rosaline’s consultancy work focuses on improving the settlement experiences of Pacific peoples in New South Wales. In her role as Engagement Coordinator for the Pacific Australia Emerging Leaders Network, she supports and empowers young Pacific leaders across Australia and Oceania to engage in meaningful advocacy. Her previous work includes climate justice initiatives with Pacific communities in Tuvalu and Kiribati.

Reverend Moni Taumoepeau 

Rev Alimoni (Moni) Taumoepeau is Tongan by birth but has lived in Australia since 1987. He is married with two children. He is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia in placement at the Synod NSWACT as team leader for Intercultural Ministry and Climate Change. He is a diaspora Pacific Island community leader advocating for climate justice and inclusion of Pacific voices in Western Sydney and abroad. He is commited to working with First Nations people learning and engaging through truth telling. He is an Elder for Pacific Australia Emerging Leaders' Summit, coaching and mentoring next generation community leaders. He is passionate about relational meeting and acting for the common good for all.  

Winnie Dunn 

Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several acclaimed anthologies, including Brownface (Cordite, 2018), Sweatshop Women (Sweatshop, 2019), Straight-Up Islander (SBS, 2020) and Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). Winnie's debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette 2024) won the 2025 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists Award and the 2025 Creative Australia Kathleen Mitchell Award. Dirt Poor Islanders was also shortlisted for two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Moderated by Sujatha Fernandes

Sujatha Fernandes is a writer and Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney. She is the author of five books, including three academic monographs, a memoir on a global hip hop life Close to the Edge, and a collection of essays The Cuban Hustle. Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New Ohio Review, Saranac Review, Aster(ix), The Nation, Orion Magazine and elsewhere. She is currently doing research on migrant workers in Sydney, Mumbai, and New York City, including with PALM-scheme workers in Sydney – supported by an Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project grant. She is working on a new book, Staying Afloat: Migrants and Work in Global Cities.

Hosted at Utp. Co-sponsored by The University of Sydney’s Discipline of Sociology and Criminology, the Discipline of Anthropology, and the Powerful Stories Network.

Cover image credit: Satellite image of Tonga

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Access Notes:

TRANSPORT

Public Transport – Utp is located very close to Bankstown train station. It is 300 metres, and about a 7-minute walk away. There are several crossings on this walk. Please beware that the Dale Parade car park generally has cars coming in multiple directions.

Parking is available at the Olympic Parade car park and Marion car park nearby. There is also a minibus drop-off zone at Dale Parade, 25 metres to the Arts Centre's main entrance. You can find a parking map here.

VENUE

Wheelchair Access – You can enter the Arts Centre via the front of the building at Dale Parade. There is a lift that can take you from ground level to the courtyard. There is a ramp to get to all rooms but there is no ramp into the inner grassy courtyard. The step down from the courtyard is around 10cm high.

We will maintain wide and clear pathways at this event.

Accessible and all-gender bathrooms are in the foyer of Bankstown Arts Centre. There are also two more that can be accessed via Rehearsal Rooms 1, 2 and the Theatre. They are equipped with a handrail and an assistance button. A baby-change station is available in the foyer bathroom.

Guide Dogs and support animals are welcome at Utp and Bankstown Arts Centre. You can take them into RS1.

For detailed access information to the venue, please visit the Access page on our website.