Cocos Malays
Cocos Malays are a community that form the predominant group of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which is now a part of Australia. Today, most of the Cocos Malay can be found in the eastern coast of Sabah, Malaysia, because of diaspora originating from the 1950s during the British colonial period. Despite that they all have assimilated into the ethnic Malay culture, they are named in reference to the Malay race, originating from different places of the Malay archipelago such as Bali, Bima, Celebes, Madura, Sumbawa, Timor, Sumatra, Pasir-Kutai, Malacca, Penang, Batavia and Cirebon, as well as South Africa and New Guinea. History Colonisation and governance The first Malays are believed to have arrived and settled in the Islands in 1826 "when Alexander Hare, an English merchant, brought his Malay harem and slaves there." In 1827 John Clunies-Ross changed the lives of the Malay slaves when he settled the Islands with his family. The existing Malays and a large number of newly arrived Malay immigrants that Clunies-Ross brought with him were employed to assist with the harvesting of coconuts for copra. People from British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies as well as South Africa and New Guinea were brought in