A North Queensland South Sea Islander group is using a shared love of rugby league to teach its young men to be proud of their 'Kanaka' heritage, 150 years after their ancestors were brought to the region against their will.

In 1867 the Prima Donna docked in Mackay carrying 70 men who were taken from various islands in the South Pacific, in a practice known as "blackbirding".

Across Queensland, 50,000 blackbirded workers were made to work in arduous conditions in cane fields and cotton plantations.

The so-called Kanakas are often credited as the forgotten backbone of the state's now-$2 billion sugar industry.

Despite only being recognised by the Queensland Government as a distinct cultural group in 2000, Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) have built a vibrant community and recorded a 133 per cent increase in population in the 2016 census.

This places the ASSI population between 70,000 to 100,000, inclusive of dual heritage with Indigenous Australians.

The group hopes the inaugural Kanaka Proud Cup will become an annual event. ( ABC Tropical North: Sophie Meixner )

Rugby league has long been a part of the group's heritage, with sporting greats like Mal Meninga and Sam Backo claiming ASSI background.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of South Sea Islanders to the Mackay region, the first Kanaka Proud Cup was held on weekend.

A team of Kanakas from Rockhampton played their counterparts in Mackay in an event the group hopes will become an annual rugby league match.

Before the match the men took a bus tour around sites in Mackay important to ASSI history, and tried their hand at cutting cane to honour their ancestors' hard work.

Ms Healy says the word 'Kanaka' to refer to South Sea Islanders should be a word of pride. ( Supplied )

ASSI Elder Marion Healy said the Kanaka Proud Cup was about reclaiming the word Kanaka as something to be proud of.

"Our fathers excelled in sports and in this community we've seen a lot of our boys move away from our families, so I'd like to draw them back and pull them back in," she said.

"We've got a captive audience of 50 young men sitting with at least 12 to 13 elders hearing the stories of what it was like to be ASSI men working in the cane fields.

"It's brought pride in our community because people are travelling in from everywhere, and I'm thinking surely this is just an ordinary game but no, it's it's something big that people want to come home for."

Francene Nahow's great grandparents are buried in unmarked graves in the Mackay cemetery.

The bus tour included a visit to the Mackay cemetery where over 100 ASSI workers were buried in the 'heathen' section in unmarked graves during blackbirding days.

The men also visited the site at Dumbleton where ASSI families were forced to live as "fringe-dwellers" on the banks of the Pioneer River.

Kyle and Jamahl Youse played rugby league as part of the Mackay ASSI team. ( ABC Tropical North: Sophie Meixner )

ASSI woman Francene Nahow's great grandparents were buried in unmarked graves in the Mackay cemetery in 1919.

She said a project was underway to put tombstones on all of the unmarked graves.

"It's just to make everything right, it's a matter of respect for our elders, because if it wasn't for them we would not exist," she said.

"Not just for us, for our children and for the next generation, and for them to know the struggles that they had to go through compared to now.

"It's just sad to see the graves are there, and you wouldn't even know that it's a grave.

"It's sad but I'm glad that I'm here to be able to be part of all that what's happening."

Coach of the Rockhampton ASSI rugby league team Lionel Harbin says the bond between ASSI people is "unique". ( ABC Tropical North: Sophie Meixner )

Coach of the Rockhampton ASSI rugby league team Lionel Harbin said the bond among ASSI people was "very hard to explain".

"You've got to know who you are to know where you're going," he said.

"Wherever you go we're all about family, that's just the way it is.

"I try to explain it to my mates back home, but if you're not brought up or born into it it's very hard to explain, it's a part of you.

"It's unique, I think it's the best way to describe it."

