WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NORFOLK ISLAND (and probably won't be told officially by those who think it is just a remote part of Australia)

I have been very actively working Facebook lately. Can't leave it to the young ones completely, although they are also doing a great job in getting the message out there that Norfolk Island, its government and its people are being very shamefully treated by Australia's government and bureaucracy. Here I have collated some of my posts from the last three days.

NORFOLK ISLANDERS are a unique and ethnically distinct race, descended from the British Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian partners. Over the years many of us have been welcomed into this community, and able to share in the benefits of their unique heritage and culture. However, Norfolk Islanders do not have any special rights here in their own homeland. It is called racial discrimination to allow that. For a while the clause "special relationship" was used to make it easier 

for a Norfolk Islander to migrate back to the island. Now Australia has decreed that any Australian or New Zealander can live here, no questions asked. And yes, we make them feel welcome.

A targeted program of propaganda and policy directions is threatening to dilute and even extinguish the unique Norfolk Islander identity. Canberra clearly states that it is governing Norfolk Island for the Australians who live here - there is absolutely no protection for the Norfolk Islander for whom this is a homeland (they have no other, just a family link with Pitcairn)

Do they have to blacken their faces to earn just a little bit of the token acknowledgement that Australia's indigenous people receive?..

Yesterday, I wrote about Norfolk Island as the homeland of the Norfolk Islanders, a distinct ethnic group. They are the indigenous people of Norfolk Island. However, their jobs are gradually going to be given to those brought in by Canberra to "run the show". The land they hold in trust for their children - because without Norfolk Island citizenship this is the only way they can call Norfolk Island "HOME" - will be sold because of the pressure of land taxes the Federal Government is forcing us to impose.
Funnily enough, the Norfolk language has official U.N. recognition. But what's the use if there are no Norfolk Islanders left here to speak it with each other?

So Norfolk's culture will happily slot in alongside that of all the other ethnic minorities that live in Australia? I think not.
You see, not only did this community have its origins somewhere other than Australia, they never actually migrated to Australia. They never actually asked to come under Australia's authority, and were never consulted about it. They never asked to become part of Australia, and were never asked if that was what they wanted. They were never asked if they wanted Australian citizenship, and had no choice...I could go on.
But every other ethnic group in Australia (except the Aborigines)has a "homeland" somewhere else in the world where their culture is established and flourishing in its own unique way, and which they can refer back to - or even return to!. This island is our only homeland. (And bless you, we DO have family in Pitcairn, where it all began. They have problems with colonial overlords too!!)