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  • Woolgoolga, Australia: Banana grower John Arkan is an elected member of the Coffs Harbor City Council. His grandfather came to this region on the mid-north coast of New South Wales in 1895. Sikhs took up banana farming in the 1940s when mechanization came to the sugarcane industry in Queensland, where many of them had worked as laborers. Today, the Sikh community in Woolgoolga is prosperous, having diversified into blueberries, hydroponic vegetables, and other business ventures.
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  • Kawakawa, near Labasa, Fiji: Descendants of indentured laborers who came from India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Roop Narayan and Basant Kumar cut sugarcane as members of Gang 12. Colonial-era laws prevent Indo-Fijians from owning land, so they must lease their holdings from native Fijian landlords and work as tenant farmers.
    indiaworld-3693-merchant.jpg
  • Kawakawa, near Labasa, Fiji | 2011<br />
Descendants of indentured laborers who came from India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Roop Narayan and Basant Kumar cut sugar cane as members of Gang 12 of the Labasa Mill. Colonial-era laws prevent Indo-Fijians from owning land, so they must lease their holdings from native Fijian landlords and work as tenant farmers.
    indiaworld-3693-merchant.jpg
  • Kawakawa, near Labasa, Fiji: Descendants of indentured laborers who came from India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Roop Narayan and Basant Kumar cut sugarcane as members of Gang 12. Colonial-era laws prevent Indo-Fijians from owning land, so they must lease their holdings from native Fijian landlords and work as tenant farmers.
    indiaworld-fiji-3693-merchant.jpg
  • Kawakawa, near Labasa, Fiji: Sudhesh Lal, field officer for the Fiji Sugar Corporation, makes the morning rounds, meeting the sirdars -- the overseers of the cane gangs -- to announce the daily quota of cane each gang may sell to the mill, to record the serial numbers of the cane trucks so that the gangs may be properly credited, and to issue forms so that the gangs can order more supplies from the mill
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  • Kawakawa, near Labasa, Fiji: On weekends, Roneel Narayan helps his father and the other members of Gang 12 by clearing the brush so that the cane trucks can be loaded and moved. Currently in the seventh grade, he says he wants to attend the University of the South Pacific in Suva to study "whatever my parents can afford"
    indiaworld-6281-merchant.jpg
  • Woolgoolga, Australia | 2011<br />
Sikhs gather for a wedding at the Guru Nanak Temple. Woolgoolga is home to the largest Sikh community in Australia, many of whom are banana growers. Sikhs took up banana farming in Australia in the 1940s when mechanization came to the sugar cane industry in Queensland, where many of them had worked as laborers. Today, the Sikh community in Woolgoolga is prosperous, having diversified into blueberries, hydroponic vegetables, and other business ventures.
    indiaworld-2406-merchant.jpg
  • Henry Davenport and the Rev. John Merchant. Mr. Davenport owns Altona Farm, which includes the site of St. George's Chapel. Fr. Merchant, of Atlanta, Georgia, grew up at Zion Church before becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church and school chaplain and headmaster. He was the guest preacher at a service of morning prayer at the ruins of St. George's Chapel, as part of Zion Episcopal Church's 200th anniversary celebrations.
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  • Henry Davenport and the Rev. John Merchant. Mr. Davenport owns Altona Farm, which includes the site of St. George's Chapel. Fr. Merchant, of Atlanta, Georgia, grew up at Zion Church before becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church and school chaplain and headmaster. He was the guest preacher at a service of morning prayer at the ruins of St. George's Chapel, as part of Zion Episcopal Church's 200th anniversary celebrations.
    zion200th-4679-merchant.jpg
  • Sacramento, California | 2014<br />
Sukhdeep Singh, a member of bhangra troupe Ankhiley Gabroo, performs during halftime for Sikh Appreciation Night at the Sacramento Kings basketball game. Greater Sacramento is home to a large Sikh community that traces its roots to laborers who worked on farms in the Central Valley in the 1920s.
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  • Yuba City, California | 2104<br />
Karm Bains is a fourth-generation California farmer, who grows peaches, prunes, walnuts, and almonds. His father, Didar Singh Bains, worked on California farms as a day laborer, saving most of his meager wages and buying land on his way to becoming one of the biggest peach growers in the nation. Sikhs from Punjab first arrived in the early 20th century to work on railroads, sawmills, and in agriculture in Canada. Many settled farther south in California, working first as laborers and then buying and developing land. Today the northern Central Valley is home to a Sikh community that has expanded beyond agriculture and into other forms of business, politics, philanthropy, and the arts.
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