Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders
Times like the NRL Magic Round and Grand Final are often a time for nostalgia and celebration of our favourite rugby league teams and their players.
One of the game’s finest and inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame, is Malcolm (Mal) Meninga AM. Mal is a former professional player and has been coach of Australia’s national rugby league team since 2016. Mal’s long list of sporting accolades boasts 32 State of Origin contests and four Kangaroo tours, representing and captaining Australia.
Mal is a proud Australian South Sea Islander with familial links to Tanna, Vanuatu. His great-grandfather came to Australia in the late 1800s for a better life, working in the Queensland cane fields. Mal grew up in Bundaberg and lived in various Queensland country towns before moving to the Sunshine Coast with his family in 1971. His career as a police officer was soon surpassed by his natural talent and strength on the footy field together with hard work, ethics, dedication, and leadership qualities which Mal attributes to his family upbringing and Australian South Sea Islander heritage.
Geoffrey Meninga, Imelda Miller, and Mal Meninga on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, 2013.
Mal and his brother Geoffrey shared their story with Imelda Miller, Curator of Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders, in a 2013 interview produced by State Library of Queensland. The long-form interview is viewable via State Library’s catalogue but a shorter digital story is also available and features in Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders, an exhibition at Queensland Museum Kurilpa.
As they reminisce about their upbringing, Mal and Geoffrey recall cherished family gatherings, especially at Christmas, with music and food and spending time with their Australian South Sea Islander grandparents. Mal has been on a journey the past few years to find out more about his heritage both in Australia and Vanuatu and has a strong sense of identity.
“I’ll always identify with being Australian South Sea Islander. It’s right to my core. It’s how I live my life with the values that I was brought up with as an Australian South Sea Islander – it was a great upbringing. It was a disciplined upbringing. It was a respectful upbringing. It was a family upbringing. So, all those core values I learnt as a young person, as a young kid, around family is still there entrenched in my heart. That’s how I live my life now and impart back to my children.” — Mal Meninga, 2013.
Mal Meninga’s story is just one of many personal and community stories featured in Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders. They give insight into the legacy of South Sea Islanders who were blackbirded, coerced, taken and recruited into forced and unforced labour on Queensland’s sugar and cotton plantations in the late 19th century and then forcibly deported as part of the White Australia Policy introduced in 1901. Only 1654 South Sea Islanders were allowed to stay in Australia and their descendants make up today’s Australian South Sea Islander community.
Say Our Name: Australian South Sea Islanders is on display at Queensland Museum Kurilpa until July 2025.
View Say Our Name learning resources for schools.
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