CHILDREN OF THE BOUNTY

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that Norfolk Island is distinct from Australia ethnically, historically and culturally.

The Norfolkers/Pitcairners never migrated to Australia as a community, and they never voluntarily "adopted" Australia as their homeland or country of citizenship.

The history of Norfolk's people is quite separate and distinct from that of Australia, and their culture has evolved quite separately also.

For the first two decades after the Mutiny on the Bounty, the surviving mutineers, together with the Tahitian women and children, in their extreme isolation, formed a peaceful and positive little community that was to amaze the captains and crews of visiting ships after their discovery. All they needed in the early part of the nineteenth century was a little friendly and helpful advice. But the pattern of resourcefulness and calm strength was well and truly established by then, and survives to this day.

The Norfolk/Pitcairn dialect was also established early, combining the English of the mutineers, the Tahitian of the women, and possibly a West Indian influence from Edward Young. To this day, there are nuances, emotions, humour, and Norfolk "ways" that cannot be expressed in English. Only the colourful Norfolk language conveys these things properly.

There is no doubt that the strong Polynesian influence in the culture was complemented by the British values, first of the mutineers (especially Adams) and later of Evans, Buffett, and most importantly George Hunn Nobbs.

Later, on Norfolk Island, this Britishness was further reinforced by the influences of the staff of the Melanesian Mission, some of whom married into island families.

Many will not be aware that there was also a strong American influence in the culture. Visiting whalers often spent time with the islanders, and frequently left their wives on the island during the whaling season. Island pies, and also the celebration of Thanksgiving, are just two important aspects of our culture that we learned from the American visitors.

However the continuing Polynesian/Tahitian tradition has persisted. Polynesian dancing, weaving, cooking and music are still practised and enjoyed by Norfolk Island people. It should be remembered that this was a close and isolated community, and there was not a great deal of marriage with outsiders for the first hundred years. Even today, there is still a high percentage of Polynesian blood in many island families.

This fact was really brought home when a group of Norfolkers travelled to Tahiti last year to help the Bounty descendants still living there celebrate their Bounty Day - the anniversary of the sailing of the Bounty into Matavi Bay in 1788. The warm family feeling that the Norfolkers experienced when they met their Tahitian cousins took them quite by surprise.

In spite of the language differences, they discovered they had so much in common, and were overwhelmed by the emotional welcome and the kind hospitality shown to them by the Tahitians. The bonds were extremely strong! And they even kept meeting Tahitians who looked just like particular Norfolkers back home!

Norfolk Islanders also still feel they are of the same race as the Pitcairn Islanders. They still share the same bloodlines, the same language, and many of the same traditions. They too are "Children of the Bounty."

In 2004, the Senate Joint Standing Committee said:

"Norfolk Island's history and cultural heritage are highly valued as part of Australia's national and multicultural heritage.....Australia's national interest... is also served by ensuring that these aspects of Norfolk Island Life are maintained." (Review of Annual Reports of DOTARS and Dept of Environment and Heritage. p.87)

I find it incredibly arrogant of the JSC to speak of the culture of a people as if it were some commodity, or some feather to stick in Australia's multicultural cap!

Whatever Australia may do with Norfolk legally and constitutionally, this will not make Norfolkers into Australians in the ethnic or cultural sense. Their history and heritage are unique and separate, and they are rightly very proud of this!