This duo is the last word on Sikh settlers Down Under

It is said that the first Sikhs arrived in Bris bane in 1844, one hundred years before what is commonly believed. And, if one would like to truly know about the Sikh migration to Australia, Crystal Jordan and Len Kenna's documented research should come handy.

For 25 years now, Crystal and Len from Australia have been researching about the Indian Sikh community in Australia.

Crystal inherited her interest from her paternal grandfather, who served in the

British Army

in India and her father who was born in Bareilly, UP. Over the last 20 years or so, Len and Crystal have travelled across Australia, England and India, researching and collecting information and material and have published five books on Australian Indian History.

“Len had been studying about Sikhs in Victoria and had penned a play on the story of three Sikh brothers in Australia when he was asked to do a definitive history of Indians in Victoria.He began research only to find a wealth of information in the records of Australia and needed my help. So we have since worked together on what was to be one book but has grown to be six books so far,“ Crystal explained.

Len's background is in history and archeology. He grew up in Hamilton, Victoria, where an Indian hawker visited his home. His mother washed the hawker's turbans for him and he used to cook the evening meal. He told them stories of India. The horses bred in the area used to be sold to the Indian army. “I suppose our backgrounds have had a lot to play in our interest and it has probably become a type of obsession, one might say,“ she adds. Our mission is to include all ethnic back grounds from India that had any thing to do with Australia and or its development in an effort to reduce racism. “About 80% of our findings are Sikh-relative...It is not just Indian history but also Australian history,“ says Crystal.

Crystal mentions one such finding on Desanda Singh or Dasunda Singh, the Indian hawker. Dasunda was born in Kapurthala, Punjab, in 1879. He migrated to Australia in 1898 and began hawking in

South Australia

in the early 1900s.

Dasunda settled on the Eyre Peninsular in South Australia, in around the Denial Bay , Ceduna area. He can be considered a pioneer of the district as he is mentioned in early histories of the area as a farmer who was involved in clearing the virgin scrub, a thankless, difficult, lonely and dirty job.

Towards the end of the First World War Dasunda enlisted in the 3rd Australian Light Horse in 1917. He re turned to Australia with Sirdar Singh, his friend from Adelaide. It is interesting to note that both Dasunda and Sirdar were accepted in the Australian Light Horse, an elite regiment when many Australian horsemen were rejected. Dasunda wore a yellow and blue turban for most of his life and this was the Regimental Colours of the 16th Bengal Lancers. Dasunda returned to India on a number of occasions for to visit his wife and children and finally went home on May 30, 1939. He later became blind and died about 10 or 15 years later.

Len says, “The earliest Sikh to come to Australia was Dabee Singh who arrived in 1844 as an indentured labourer to Queensland. Dabee's son,

Pooran Dabee Singh

, was born in Australia in 1849. His great, great grandson Frederic Robert Singh, in the RAAF in World War II, was a POW in Germany .“