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I am of Pitcairn descent. My grandmother was born there. I'm a descendant of the mutineers Fletcher Christian, John Mills and Edward Young, and the Tahitian women who went there, Mauatua, Vahineatua, To'ofaiti and Teraura.
I've been to the island and I'm active in the Pitcairn community here in New Zealand. The island is a vibrant community of people working. When I was there they were very warm and welcoming. The island itself is small but with mountainous areas and there is much to see and do. The vibe on the island is very similar to any small rural town in New Zealand.
I have photos of the trip if anyone is interested http://cd.pn/pn2012/
Your family history is a fascinating one!
Did any of your family take Queen Victoria's offer and move to Norfolk Island when things got rough on Pitcairn 165 years ago?
It is truly amazing that this extremely remote island can actually be explored via Google street view: https://goo.gl/maps/Jq2nguTrabm84sKB8
Can you answer more questions about the state of the infrastructure there like electricity and internet? On Wikipedia it says there's only one person in charge of the electricity and it goes off every night.
Those photos are great! Thanks for sharing.
What is the male to female ratio on the island?
Do you happen to know why the wind turbine project didn't work out? It seems electricity currently comes from diesel generators, and there was a plan to get a wind turbine installed, but somehow it wasn't delivered?
How do people earn money in such a small economy?
the picture of the girl lying in the tall grass is beautiful.
Great photos! What is the weather there during the year?
While I was visiting New Zealand I found out that weather can quickly change, and kiwi told me it is usual thing they even have a song "4 seasons in one day"...
I was about to tag you on facebook about this being on HN! :)
Great photos, thanks for sharing.
Do you know if kava and taro grow there?
It sounds like a place filled with nature's bounty.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
This is partly administered by my country, New Zealand, although is not part of the Realm of New Zealand (New Zealand plus territories it controls), rather it is a British Overseas Territory.
The people living there are mostly descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their captives. There has been a long sad history of sexual abuse, with one third of the island's male population being convicted and imprisoned in the early 2000s. They were let out of prison to do jobs, such as unloading cargo ships, during the day because the island could not function otherwise.
There really are not many jobs to be had so migrants are not allowed to take local jobs, I guess they have to create a new job for themselves. According to Wikipedia they used to get 700 enquires a year for migration but nobody ever actually applied.
I am surprised nobody has tried using it as a stepping stone to get into New Zealand, because the Islanders can live and work indefinitely in New Zealand if they are of good character and good health.
Edit: I did not want to sound disrespectful so I edited my comment slightly.
I dispute your words that the island is a "rather sad place". It is a place full of people living in a remote island but the place is a warm and vibrant community full of history. Not just the history of the mutiny, but the history of the Tahitian ancestry pre-mutiny. They have a local government where local laws are enacted but as you say, they are British ruled due to a an encounter in the 1838 of a British ship where the Pitcairners asked for some laws to be drafted. Many administration aspects are managed from New Zealand for convenience but it is not administered by New Zealand. The High Commissioner in Auckland is a represents the UK.
Just saying population 53 at present, so we are talking about like 8 guys? Doesn't seem reasonable to assume that long term history of this place will be defined by so few people.
> There has been a long sad history of sexual abuse, with one third of the island's male population being convicted and imprisoned in the early 2000s.
This sounds really bad, until you realise one-third of the male population is 7 people.
You are correct, but its not an accurate use of statistics.
The idea of living on these remote islands fascinates me, especially in today's modern world where many on this planet are able to take certain conveniences for granted.
If you have a medical emergency while in places like this, you may be in serious trouble. Even in places like Antarctica, and even at the top of Mount Everest, we have modern medical facilities within range and helicopters that can come grab you, weather permitting.
Out here, a heart attack or stroke brings on a different level of scary, knowing you are going to have to cross your fingers in the same way as generations have in the past. There is no-one sending in a flight to get you off the island. If you happen to survive past the initial event, it's going to be a while before you see a specialist!
Of course, this would be the same conditions the original explorers to land here lived under, and in fact most of humanity for the majority of human history. But it is not something people tend to think about too much these days when we're generally at least within distance of where helicopters and planes can reach.
The FAQ even covers it ...
> Note that if a medical evacuation is required, transport may not be quickly available, as outside our supply ship schedule the island has to rely on passing vessels.
Even for something like a broken hip, just hope they have enough pain medication on hand until that next ship arrives. Which, if it's on schedule, might be in 3 months.
A few years ago one of the islanders had appendicitis and the island doctor couldn't do anything. They put out a broadcast for ships in the area for help - eventually one was available and went to take him to Managreva, from there to fly to the hospital in Tahiti. Unfortunately he died during the voyage.
Another incident with an islander having a medical issue, a broadcast was put out. There were no ships in the area. The situation was dire so they travelled to Mangareva by island longboat - two days over the open ocean - where he eventually was able to be medivacced to Tahiti.
Remote island life, with no airport, is definitely risky at times.
Generally agreeing with you, just wanted to comment that in Antarctica you can't be grabbed by a helicopter (or plane) during a significant portion of the year. There is typically one doctor on the base who trains some of the other personal as "nurses". They have to essentially do everything from minor ailments to significant medical emergencies. There is actually stories about the doctor on the base having to perform an appendics removal on himself. This happened twice once on the Russian base and once on the French IIRC. You can look it up there's even photos.
If you aren't aware of it, you should check out "Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will" by Judith Schalansky
>If you have a medical emergency while in places like this, you may be in serious trouble. Even in places like Antarctica, and even at the top of Mount Everest, we have modern medical facilities within range and helicopters that can come grab you, weather permitting.
A helicopter has landed on the summit of Everest ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Delsalle ) but that was a record attempt right on the edge of what is possible. I don't think they would have had enough margin to rescue anyone.
Even when I climbed Mera Peak (~21,000 feet) we were told there was no hope of a helicopter coming for us at the higher altitudes.
Looks like this is the only past thread, if you can call it that:
Pitcairn Islands - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9116933 - Feb 2015 (1 comment)
But here are related articles that have been posted in the past (without comments):
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/12/16/pitcairn_islan...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/pitcairn200801
https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231033/http://www.winthr...
This is crazy this showed up on HN. Years ago I had a dream about Pitcairn island. When I woke up I was like, does that even exist? Not sure how my psyche channeled this one up. Then I started reading about it and things are pretty sad there. You can see on the Wikipedia site some really shocking info like there's only one older administrator of the electricity system there and not to mention all the awful abuse scandals. It was super surprising to me though to see that foreigners were welcomed here and that more people hadn't taken this offer up!
I would say if you're interested in moving to an autonomous region I'd for sure check out Svalbard first, although they're undergoing climate change and it's hard for foreigners to get land there.
I feel like a broken record, but just because things are different doesn't make it "sad". Sure, it doesn't have the mod cons of modern city life, but it has a lifestyle of growing your own food, fishing, building what you need and living in the country.
People have applied for the ability to live there but the reality is that there are many people dreaming of an idyllic lifestyle but when faced with the realisation of how hard they have to work to survive on a remote island and having to integrate into an established community they don't progress further.
I knew nothing of Pitcairn but when I searched I ran into this in the Wikipedia article, its fallout is as recent as 2016. Surprised no one is talking about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands#Sexual_miscon...
I said something about it, but my content was censored by the SS here.
From the Wikipedia article posted in one of the comments:
Although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when they were rediscovered by Europeans.
In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the Bounty, along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, eleven women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the Bounty.
So that's likely why you've heard of them, though I don't think I've ever read Mutiny on the Bounty nor seen it retold in film or similar.
I currently have an image of Midway on my laptop and I've been thinking about how remote islands end up with life. They typically emerge from the ocean as a barren outcropping of rock. Birds stop and rest there, leaving behind poo and sometimes seeds in the poo sprout.
Coconuts can float in salt water for long periods and are typically the first trees found on remote islands. Sometimes insects get carried there on the winds of powerful storms and then diversify into a separate species because they can't fly far enough to leave again on their own steam.
I wonder what we might learn from small islands that might help humans resolve their problems and survive climate change.
There are Tahitian legends about Pitcairn Island, referred to as Hitiaurevareva, showing that there was travel to and from the island in the past. There are Mangarevan legends also. In the Tahitian legend of Rata, which would be familiar to NZ Māori and other Polynesian people, he goes from Tahiti to Pitcairn to rescue his mother. Tupaia who guided Captain Cook around the pacific, and who acted as translator, drew a map of the Islands he knew and visited and this included Pitcairn. Tupaia was a contempory of the Tahitian women who went on the Bounty to Pitcairn so he had been there in recent history before the Bounty arrived. One of the Tahitian men on the Bounty knew of the island and helped guide Fletcher there. I often wonder why no Polynesians went back after the Bounty settled.
One benefit is the time zone of Pitcairn is very close to North American Pacific time. Right now it's one hour earlier. Get your Starlink account and you're set.
"You can visit without a visa for up to 14 days, while long-term visit visas are valid for up to 6 months.
"
"How do people travel to/from Pitcairn? The Government of Pitcairn Islands charters a passenger/cargo vessel. This currently carries supplies and passengers to the island every three months."
How do you visit for only 14 days if there is no airport and the ship only comes every three months?
surprised no one has mentioend the excellent Extremities podcast, one of the seasons was about life on and history of Pitcairn https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arrival-on-pitcairn/id...
Any single person moving there with a SV salary can single handedly triple the GDP :P
The island looks beautiful, but I would worry about cabin fever, social isolation, emergency services and quality medical care. Also, there appear to be no beaches.
Are children allowed on the island after what happened there?
This blog post has some pretty neat photos of the island:
https://jeobox.com/3668/this-tiny-island-in-the-middle-of-no...
But yeah, the island does have a dark past.
Among other things, it's apparently as close to the purported location of R'Lyeh as one can get. Just, well... in case.
I was googling and there is inconsistent information about whether surfing is possible. Is it true there are no beaches?
I think the website is missing important information (or it's buried somewhere):
- quick facts about Pitcairn [0] (e.g. 47 people, 47 sq.km of surface, British Overseas Territory)
- what kind of visa you will grant (permanent resident?)
- is there a path to citizenship / passport, and if so, how long it would take?
- is there any special agreement with the UK? e.g. UK passport after 5 years of residence.
- income tax? capital gains tax?
- how easy is it to setup a business in Pitcairn?
In any case, I plaud the effort to try to repopulate this island.
There's something about human communities where under a certain size (200? 1000?), many things become really difficult, such as having key expertise "in house" (doctor, mechanician, electrician, plumber, etc), as well as being able to maintain a good "vibe" in the community.
My guess is that 47 people on a 47 sq. km island are a bit on the low end. Hopefully they will manage to attract more people over the years.
They might want to consider asking a government (UK? New Zealand?) to help them with some budget and an immigration program that could easily attract at least tens of people.
Anyone know of anyone has actually applied?
population: 47, according to wikipedia
Once they get Skylink it sounds like a libertarian dream.
Populating a place (making babies) is not a problem and if it starts to be one, then something is wrong with the place: If future prospects are very grimm, then people stop having kids. This is something seen across the entire western world. Wages are too low and to add insult to injury people outside the west (Jews, Arabs, PoC) demand immigration to solve the (wrong) problem, but serving their own interests.
This became such an accepted narrative, that it is hard to correct (I just did) and gets pushed and used else/everywhere, like here, in a small island: Pitcairn.
Something is wrong with the place itself: "As of 2012, just two children had been born on Pitcairn in the 21 years prior."
Which is also shown in the absolute migration numbers: "For a recent survey that contacted hundreds of islanders who have left Pitcairn over the years, only 33 participated and just 3 expressed a desire to return."
It's like a company which pays peanuts having 80% of their positions open and complaining about not being able to find new employees and "HR (desperately) searching".
The article is out of the category that HR pulls all the time ala "Why you should work at place XYZ". But the reality is, that they only hire one specific person out of 100, that has exactly the skill they need.
So, fundamentally everything is going the right way on Pitcairn: A harsh place gets depopulated. And someone is spinning the fairytale and roses story, because it's one of the rare things there is to do: A payed (government) job on the island.
And: Everyone is just so isolated on that island and super-welcoming (of course) to someone new (and nice, ... he needs to be "a nice chap") arriving, because... excitement.