Transcript
JONATHAN SINCLAIR: The island has been doing really well. What struck me very much over my time is how what was, say ten years ago, a mood of almost low-level conflict between islanders and government, the UK government had insisted on trials carrying out on the island, and that had caused huge splits. That is now a thing of the past and the island and government are working really closely together.
KIM HILL: You mean the trails being carried out on the island because, what, people wanted the trials off the island? Or just trials full stop?
JS: I think trials full stop and also the nature of what was at the heart of the trials which was very disturbing. Now, what's really really impressive over the last three years is how the islanders themselves have moved forward, they have a taken a great deal of responsibility to come forward and address what went on in the past, to collectively say yes it was wrong, it shouldn't have happened.
KH: Has there been resistance to that?
JS: No. Not at all, and that's the wonderful thing. So in August we had a process, and you'll understand I can't go into too much detail about the nature of it, but it was collective, it involved experts from off the island who came on and facilitated, they didn't need to drive this at all. They facilitated a conversation and the islanders themselves are desperate to move beyond, to not duck it, to address what happened, admit there was wrong, and then move forward and look for a prosperous and happier future.
KH: Extraordinarily difficult, what's the population now?
JS: 42.
KH: Does that make it more difficult or less difficult? More difficult because it's so small everybody's forced to mix and mingle every day?
JS: The population has never been more than 200. The peak was sort of in the late 1800s. So it's always been a small community and it's very cut off, it's very isolated. One of the challenges is nothing to do with what's gone in the last 20 years in terms of what's on the island, it's things like international shipping. So in the old days, ships would come down the eastern sea board of the USA, through the Panama Canal and stop at Pitcairn, so it would have a ready and very frequent service of freight, of goods and of people. People coming to New Zealand to live often stopped at Pitcairn. But nowadays a). the ships don't come through the Panama Canal so much, the freight gets shipped from the east coast to the west coast of America and tends to go via the Cook Islands or Samoa. So Pitcairn's ended up a bit like Radiator Springs in the film "Cars," when the freeway gets put in and Route 66 dwindles and these are sort of economic and technological changes that actually make it very hard. But what we at least have now is the wherewithal and determination of those on-island and off-island to do all they can to make the island work.
KH: Is it only a question of time before the population dwindles to zero?
JS: Well the demographics are against us, there's no doubt about it. The population is ageing and they move to New Zealand when they're a certain age to have secondary schooling. But there are great things going for the island too. It is absolutely beautiful, there are economically prosperous things that go on, their honey is the best in the world. It's one of the few bits of honey that's veroa free - that little mite that gets into all the bees.
KH: What sort of honey is it?
JS: It's delightful. It's honey off...
KH: Delightful. I mean is it manuka honey, what is it?
JS: It's not manuka honey...
KH: What do they have growing there that the bees like? Sorry this is a botanical question but as the Governor of Pitcairn I would expect you to know these things.
JS: So it's a volcanic island and it has a lot of fruit, it has tropical flowers. It's basically flower-based honey.
KH: As opposed to meat-based honey?
JS: Now you've got me. Now you've got me. But it sells for 10 pounds in London. It's good stuff and it's quite hard to get by because we can't produce enough of it, that's the thing. But the other thing going for it of course is it's a staggeringly beautiful place, it's now the third-largest marine protected area in the world so if there is a future it's going to be around eco-tourism.
