kanaka
1
9.9
A Pacific Island worker brought to work on farms in the 1800s
- noun
- /kəˈnɑːkə/
- Archaic
:
trabajador de las islas del Pacífico
- The plantation owner hired four kanakas to help with the harvest during the busy season.
Examples
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Additionally, Kanaka were increasingly unhappy about the restrictions and prescriptions placed on every aspect of their lives by Protestant missionaries, including the ban on the practice of hula.
Academic text (2008) -
In the early 20th century, many kanakas worked on Australian sugarcane plantations.
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I need a cook, seven or eight healthy kanakas at $5 a head.
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Historically, kanakas played a significant role in the agricultural development of the Pacific Islands.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Kanaka was later used in the 1800s by plantation owners and others to name workers brought from Pacific islands, so it came to mean a 'Pacific Island worker' in historical accounts.