Remembering Jackson Bay's immigrants

More than 100 people gathered at a remote West Coast location at the weekend to commemorate the hardships of their forefathers and celebrate ongoing research into a forgotten history.

Jackson Bay was the busiest it had been in a long time as families came together from across the country to mark 150 years since the first landing of immigrants in the bay in 1875.

People from Italy, Poland and many other European countries arrived with hopes of creating a better life for themselves, only to be met with heavy rain, unemployment and poor living conditions.

This led to many deaths, including parents and children whose bodies were buried and forgotten in Arawhata Cemetery.

For a long time, the cemetery had no headstones to identify the deceased, until a Lake Hawea woman with a holiday home in Jackson Bay took a walk through the cemetery and decided to do something about it.

Fourteen years ago, Katherine Bennie took on the responsibility of uncovering the names and stories of the pioneers who suffered for a better life.

At the weekend, the fruits of Mrs Bennie’s labour were on display.

At 1.30 pm on Saturday, many gathered by the entrance of the cemetery to see the unveiling of a plaque with the confirmed names of the people buried there.

Mrs Bennie began the unveiling with a heartfelt speech recounting the difficult journey of the Jackson Bay pioneers and the work that still needed to be done in order to uncover all of their stories.

"Finding those buried here is always going to be a work in progress."

John Nolan, whose forefathers were pioneers, also gave a speech about the importance of learning the pioneers’ history.

"We owe it to them to do what we are doing now."

After the ceremonial ribbon was pulled and the plaque was unveiled, the group moved to Jackson Bay, where a second unveiling took place, this time of a Department of Conservation kiosk with a new panel displaying 300 names of settlers from the first ship.

Westland Mayor Helen Lash gave a speech marking the importance of the research to Westland communities before unveiling the panel.

Everyone came together in the evening for dinner to celebrate the work that had been done.

People from Wānaka, Dunedin and Auckland were present and many had dressed in period costume.

Families descended from pioneers such as the Eggelings, Nolans and Cuttances came in large numbers and costume, as did members of the Polish Association, whose forefathers also had connections to Jackson Bay.

The evening began with speeches from members of pioneer families, followed by a dinner and a cake cutting to mark the anniversary.

By Rawan Saadi