Putting Down Roots Belonging and the Politics of Settlement on Norfolk Island

Putting Down Roots Belonging and the Politics of Settlement on Norfolk Island Mitchell Kenneth Low B.A. (Hons) University of Western Australia, 2004 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Social Sciences (Anthropology and Sociology) 2012 Abstract In this thesis I theorise emergent nativeness and the political significance of resettlement among the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty in the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island (South Pacific). Norfolk Islanders are a group of Anglo-Polynesian descendants who trace their ancestry to unions between the mutineers of the HMAV Bounty and Tahitian women. Norfolk Islanders’ ancestors were resettled from their home of Pitcairn Island to the decommissioned, vacant, penal settlement of Norfolk Island in 1856. Since this date, members of the Norfolk community have remained at odds with state officials from Britain and Australia over the exact nature of their occupancy of Norfolk Island. This fundamental contestation over the Island’s past is the basis of ongoing struggles over recognition, Island autonomy and territoriality, and belonging. Using a combination of qualitative research conducted on Norfolk Island and extensive historical and archival research, I present an ethnography of belonging among a highly emplaced island population. One of the central problems in conceptualising Norfolk Islanders’ assertions of belonging is that Norfolk Islanders not only claim Norfolk as a homeland, but members of this community have at times declared themselves the indigenous people of the Island. With respect to recent anthropological theorisations of indigeneity as relationally and historically constituted, I consider the extent to which concepts such as ‘native’ and ‘indigenous’ may be applicable to descendants of historical migrants. I distinguish between a concept of ‘nativeness’ as entailing primary historical and social connections between a group of people and a defined territory as asserted against others, and ‘indigeneity’ as a globalised form of subjectivity inseparable from historically constituted power relationships colonists and colonised. This distinction allows me to productively describe Islander’s emplacement and enduring connections with place. I suggest that Norfolk Islanders’ sense of belonging to Norfolk Island should be regarded as a form of nativeness, not to be dismissed as inauthentic due to the facts of their ancestors’ historical movement. Describing how nativeness is constructed on Norfolk Island required me to take a multifaceted approach to how Islanders made connections to their past and attributed meaning to it. I situate my analysis at the juncture of anthropology, memory and history, focusing on how Norfolk Islanders construct their belonging to the Island by positioning i themselves relative to their past. I explain how Norfolk Islanders’ sense of nativeness to Norfolk Island is constructed through a combination of the ways in which they: remember settlement through ritual and commemoration; construct key continuities with original settlers through tracing descent from founding Pitcairn ancestors, maintain a deep sense of family emplacement on Norfolk Island through intergenerational property relationships; mobilise connections between language, locality and belonging and importantly; reiterate a historically persistent belief, not always shared by all Islanders, that Norfolk Island was a gift from Queen Victoria to the Pitcairn people. I bring the thesis to a close by reflecting on Islanders’ awareness of their historical and contemporary occupation of Norfolk Island and the role of historical documentation in Islanders’ constructions of belonging. I argue that nativeness can emerge among people who are historically conscious of their ancestors’ history of migration, provided the concept of ‘nativeness’ is disarticulated from the conditions of ‘occupation since time immemorial’ associated with related concepts such as ‘indigeneity’ and ‘autochthony’. Contrary to these conditions, I conclude that nativeness and a memory and history of migration are not mutually exclusive alternatives. Rather, I demonstrate that the form of nativeness that Norfolk Islanders claim to Norfolk Island is largely predicated on their ability to remember and document the conditions of their ancestors’ settlement on Norfolk Island and their ability to sustain the significance of this event in contemporary consciousness. ii Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been both a privilege and a challenge, and I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people. First and foremost, this thesis is dedicated to Alice Buffett. Alice taught me much about Norfolk Island and the Norf’k language and I am eternally grateful for her assistance, generosity and guidance. Additionally, I am truly indebted and thankful to Tom Lloyd for the incredible generosity he has shown me these past few years. Tom was indispensable in helping me establish myself on the Island and also made time to answer many of my initial questions patiently and enthusiastically. I’d like to acknowledge Mavis Hitch for lending me some valuable books from her extensive library and showing her passion of all things Norfolk. Short (Nobbs) for fixing my car. To Piria Coleman for her ongoing support on and off the Rock, and for directing me toward some very valuable sources. Thanks to Kik and Bonnie Quintal for their hospitality and time; Les Brown and Greg Quintal for being so generous with their time; Margarita Sampson and Bugs Robertson for the general hospitality; Brett Sanderson for his constant pressure on me to finish (it was difficult to thank you at the time, mind); Scotty Greenwood and Ashley Pereira for their generosity in providing Haylee and myself with accommodation and transport when on Island in 2010. Thanks to Wally Beadman and Alison Christian for access to the Norfolk Window back catalogue and to Tom Lloyd for access to The Norfolk Islander back catalogue. I am also grateful to ex-Administrator Mr Grant Tambling and Administrator Mr Owen Walsh for their help and support. My sincere thanks go to Sarlu LeCren, Ikey Bataille and Alan McNeil for support in registry down Kingston. Thanks also to Brian Hubber, Joan Kelly and the workers at Norfolk Island Museums allowing me access to the museum archive and use other facilities. Thanks to Dayna Adams for the use of one of her photos. Thanks also to Sue Draper and Tracy Yager for the use of the Cyclorama photo. I also thank Margaret and Ken Christian, Bernie and Mary Christian-Bailey, Tom Lloyd, Allan Tavener, Brett Sanderson, Alice Buffett, and Tim Pearson, Margie and Bugs, and everyone else who gave feedback on the chapters or bits and pieces of this thesis I sent to them. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to express my tremendous gratitude to all those who took the time to be interviewed, responded my questions, or just took the time to speak with me. I am also extremely grateful for the generosity that so many people connected to Norfolk in various ways have shown me over these past few years. The gift is certainly still alive and well on Norfolk Island. Thaenks f’ mii. Returning from a remote subtropical island to begin the writing process at University of Western Australia was a challenge at first, but several people helped me get back into the flow of academia. Principally, this study would not have been possible without the dedication and support of Asst/Prof Richard Davis. Richard’s extensive comments, suggestions, guidance and sound advice have improved my work enormously. I’d also like iii to sincerely thank Professor Nicholas Harney, who agreed to act as a substitute supervisor while Richard Davis was on leave and subsequently became an essential secondary supervisor. Nick has been incredibly supportive and encouraging over the past few years and has also offered valuable and constructive feedback. I’d also like to thank supervisor Professor David Trigger, especially for his valuable early guidance on my research proposal and directions. Thanks to fellow Norfolk scholars Professor Peter Mühlhäusler, Professor Phil Hayward and Professor Maeve O’Collins who all gave valuable initial advice on the practicalities of research on the Island. A further thankyou must go to Professor Mühlhäusler for generously sharing his work with me. I thank Dr Joshua Nash and Piria Coleman for the ongoing and fruitful scholarly discussions about Norfolk. It has been a pleasure being able to share ideas with you both. Thanks additionally to Piria for your diligent and enthusiastic readings of my gift chapter and to Dr Joshua Nash for moral and practical support. I am indebted to my many of my colleagues who have supported and assisted me over my candidature. While so many of you have offered me help, I’d like to particularly thank Dr Catie Gressier, Dr Chris Haynes and Dr Richard Martin for taking well-deserved coffee breaks with me and bringing energising conversation with you; all three have definitely improved my thesis-writing experience exponentially. A special thanks to my office mates Dr Sean Ryan-Martin Iverson and Dr Sanna Peden. Sean, thanks also for the valuable anthropology discussions. Sanna, thanks for not only tolerating said discussions anthropology, but also for your general cheer during the gloomier periods of writing in our windowless office. A sincere thanks also goes to Susan McEwan for her assistance with editing. Thanks to Dr Cheryl Lange, Dr. Katie Glaskin, Dr. Yasmine Musharbash and the University of Western Australia Thesis Writing Group. The critiques of chapters I received via the TWG were incredibly valuable and I often found myself returning to the various mad scribblings of colleagues as a guide to improving my writing. And I’d like to especially thank Administrative Officer Jill Woodman for her amazing ability to fix any administrative problem I had throughout my candidature. I am grateful to other staff members the UWA School of Social and Cultural Studies, Associate Professor Martin Forsey and Professor Victoria Burbank for their various forms of support and encouragement throughout the past few years.

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