A Queensland woman has become one of the first Australians to claim dual Vanuatu citizenship on behalf of her ancestors, who had been victims of Australia's colonial labour trade.

Raechel Ivey's great-grandparents arrived in Australia from Vanuatu in the late 19th century.

Her great-grandmother, Fanny Battingarra, was only eight years old. Her great-grandfather, James Tuku, was about 20.

Both Fanny and James were victims of "blackbirding" - a colonial labour trade in which Pacific Islanders were recruited, or kidnapped, to work as indentured labour on plantations in Australia from 1863 to the early 1900s.

More than 150 years after the trade started Ms Ivey, from Emerald in Queensland, has become one of two Australians to be granted Vanuatu citizenship.

It followed moves by Vanuatu's government last year to change the constitution to allow descendants of the trade to apply for citizenship.

Australia's South Sea Islanders had been pushing for citizenship rights for some time, as they sought to reclaim what they described as their "stolen identities".

Police statement, dated 11 August 1942, in which Fanny Battingarra was formally registered as an 'alien'; Raechel Ivey presented this to Vanuatu authorities to support her application for citizenship. ( Supplied: Raechel Ivey )

James and Fanny were among an estimated 60,000 people from more than 80 islands in the Pacific - the majority from Vanuatu and Solomon Islands - who were brought to Australia under the labour trade.

While recalling the journey to Australia, Fanny would tell her daughter she remembered sitting in the hull of a large ship, crying for days.

Most were put to work on sugar and cotton plantations in Queensland. James and Fanny were domestic servants for a Sydney family, working as a gardener and maid.

Most South Sea Islanders were eventually deported from Australia under the Pacific Island Labourers Act, legislation which related to the White Australia Policy.

But James and Fanny got married after they were set free in the early 1900s and stayed on in Australia to raise their family.

Citizenship gives 'a sense of identity and belonging'

There are now believed to be around 40,000 descendents of those first Australian South Sea Islanders.

Ms Ivey has spent many years trying to uncover her family's stories and in 2011 she visited Vanuatu for the first time.

"Just flying over the Pacific Ocean, my husband and I cried all the way over, because we knew our great-grandparents came over on a ship as prisoners, as slaves in chains," she said.

"It was very emotional before we even got off the plane.

Raechel Ivey's children, descendants of Fanny Battingarra and James Tuku. ( Supplied: Raechel Ivey )

"And when we went down the stairs of the aeroplane, we took shoes off and stepped our feet on the ground and said 'we're home'."

Ms Ivey received confirmation of her Vanuatu citizenship in late August.

"It took about 10 minutes for it to sink in. I was emotional, I just didn't know what to do," she said.

"It's just given me a sense of identity and belonging. To me, it wasn't just about my identity - it was regaining my great-grandfather's identity, who was brought over here."

She now plans to move to Vanuatu permanently next year, where she hopes to set up a new business.

She also wants to find her long-lost family.

"Hopefully we can go to Santo [island], it is one of my goals and go find my great-grandmother's family. It's a matter of going there and actually retracing her," she said.

"It's about reconnecting, I suppose, with part of our history."

More applications expected

John Enock Ware, secretary-general of Vanuatu's Citizenship Commission, said more applications are now expected.

He said applicants were required to provide evidence of their ancestry in order for his commission to approve them.

"The first two were able to provide sufficient information to the commission. They also provided us with their ancestry and their family tree," Mr Ware said.

"We have received a lot of enquiries through emails from the ancestors of South Sea Islanders in Australia, so my office has responded and I am pretty sure more applications will be processed in future."

He said he also expected to receive applications from South Sea Islanders now living in New Caledonia.