Fatnowna Family Archive
Noel Fatnowna (1929 to 1991), from Mackay, is well known among the Australian descendants of the Solomon Islanders indentured labourers in the late nineteenth century. Around fifty thousand Pacific Islanders were recruited to work in Queensland between 1863 and 1907, part of a wider migration of labour throughout the Pacific from the middle of the nineteenth century. Noel Fatnowna was paramount in re-establishing links between the Malaita and Mackay. His book, Fragments of a Lost Heritage (1989), written with Roger Keesing, tells the story of reuniting his family and of his childhood in Mackay.
These items belonged to Oliver Noel Fatnowna, son of Harry Norman Fatnowna, the Australian-born son of Kwailui and Orran I, who were labour recruits from Fataleka, East Malaita, Solomon Islands. A short history of the family is included in the accounts book listed below.
Archive Location: 6L
Detailed Listing
NF/1 Family accounts and notebook 1939-1960
NF/2 Family Bible. Dated 1921, St. Margaret's Missions
