My story

Jane at Dr Graham's Homes, Kalimpong, 2007.

My name is Jane McCabe. My grandmother, Lorna Peters, arrived in Dunedin with a small group from Dr Graham’s Homes in 1921. Lorna died in 1978 having never spoken about her Indian background. In 2007 I travelled to Kalimpong after the chance discovery of a school photo. On that thrilling first visit I found information not only about my family but also the larger scheme that saw groups of Kalimpong graduates resettled in New Zealand.

In 2009 I wrote a short dissertation at the University of Otago, based on the letters in Lorna’s personal file at Dr Graham’s Homes. Two years later, I embarked on a PhD looking at the emigration scheme as a whole. In the course of that research I met descendants all over New Zealand, and conducted archival research locally, in Scotland and in Kalimpong. I was awarded the PhD in December 2014. My book Race, Tea and Colonial Resettlement (Bloomsbury, 2017) was based on the thesis.

Ongoing work

My work on the Kalimpong scheme continues, spurred by our ever-increasing network of descendants. Together we are coming to terms with this fascinating and often difficult history, by sharing stories and information, reconnecting branches of families, and building a collective narrative. My new book Kalimpong Kids: The New Zealand Story, in Pictures (Otago University Press, 2020) is a brilliant example of this collaborative effort, featuring photographs from family collections all over New Zealand.

From Kalimpong to New Zealand

Dr Graham's Homes was opened in 1900 by a Scottish missionary, the Rev Dr John Anderson Graham, for the mixed-race children of British tea planters and Indian women. In an era when the Anglo-Indian community was regarded as a problem, tea planters faced few options for providing for their children’s education and future. Graham’s plan was to house and school the children in Kalimpong – an isolated hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas. Upon reaching working age, they would be sent to families in settler colonies like New Zealand, the boys as farm workers and the girls as domestic helps.

School buildings, Dr Graham’s Homes. c.1925.
Photograph: Sylvia Slater.

Fraser Cottage pupils and housemother. c.1916.
Photograph: Judi Cassidy.

The emigration scheme

The first two Kalimpong boys arrived in Dunedin in 1908. More followed, and from 1912, larger groups were sent from Dr Graham’s Homes in an organised fashion, chaperoned by housemothers and met at the port by their employers. Until 1921, all arrived in Dunedin, due to Graham’s Scottish contacts there. This changed after the introduction of new immigration legislation, and for the remainder of the scheme most arrived in Wellington. In all, 130 young people were sent from Kalimpong to New Zealand, before the scheme was halted in 1938. The Kalimpong Kids were placed with families from Southland to the Far North, and everywhere in between.

Reunion of Kalimpong emigrants at the Didsbury residence, Wellington, to celebrate John Graham’s visit to New Zealand in 1937.
Photograph: Gammie family.

The emigrants

S.S. Janus, 1925.

The following is a list of the 130 Homes graduates sent to New Zealand between 1908 and 1938. This list was compiled from a number of sources, including Dr Graham’s Homes magazine, Simon Mainwaring’s book A Century of Children, newspaper articles, shipping lists, immigration records, and information from descendants.

There were a small number of individual arrivals in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, separate to the organised scheme, which saw Isabella Leith, the Nicholls siblings (Ruth, Nora and Sidney), Kenneth Storey and Dennis Moller join siblings or friends in New Zealand. Thuten Kesang, the current New Zealand representative of the Homes, was among several new arrivals in the 1960s.

Kalimpong descendant gathering, Upper Hutt, 2017.
Photograph: Chris Ward.

Our community

Since 2011, I have been actively seeking to connect with fellow descendants of the Kalimpong Kids. On two road trips around New Zealand during my doctoral research, I met families in every main centre and many small towns. Our network grew in the years that followed, as the story received media attention and descendants regularly discovered this website and made contact.

In November 2014, we held our first get-together, in Dunedin. It was a wonderful three-day event for more than 70 descendants to meet and share stories, most of whom made the trip from the North Island. The vibe was amazing! We gathered again in 2017, in Upper Hutt, for an afternoon event that welcomed more people to our group, and launched my Bloomsbury book. We hope to hold more events like this in the future – they are an informal, fun and meaningful opportunity to chat to others with this shared history. If you would like to be on the mailing list to receive news of upcoming events, please fill in the Contact form below.

We also have a private Facebook group for descendants of Kalimpong Kids and others connected to the community, to facilitate sharing of stories, information and experiences.

Kalimpong Kids in the media

Otago Daily Times

28-11-2018

Dunedin historian wins notable prize

Dominion Post

08-09-2017

Kalimpong Kids Upper Hutt reunion

Little India

22-12-2017

Kalimpong Kids: Search for an Identity in New Zealand

Otago Daily Times

01-12-2014

Reunion of Kalimpong Kids' Descendants

Radio New Zealand

29-01-2013

Interview with Kathryn Ryan

Otago Daily Times

12-01-2013

Anglo-Indians' story revealed

If you would like to be put on my mailing list to receive information about upcoming events and publications, please contact me using the form below.

Further information

Dr Graham’s Homes, History page
Koi-Hai (northeast India tea history)
Kalimpong Kids on Facebook

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the History Programme at the University of Otago; a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage to assist with the Kalimpong Kids book; and the ongoing assistance of Thuten Kesang, Dr Graham's Homes representative in New Zealand.

Privacy

The information presented here is intended to support the community of Kalimpong descendants in New Zealand. Please respect this if you are reproducing any information from this page, and cite this website appropriately or contact me for permission.

Copyright Jane McCabe 2020