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The Pitcairn Islands, officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four islands—Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno—are scattered across several hundred miles of ocean and have a combined land area of about 18 square miles (47 km2). Henderson Island accounts for 86% of the land area, but only Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The islands nearest to the Pitcairn Islands are Mangareva at 688 km to the west and Easter Island at 1,929 km to the east.
The Pitcairn Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific Ocean, with a population of about 50. The politics of the islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Mayor is the head of government. The territory's constitution is the Local Government Ordinance of 1964. In terms of population, the Pitcairn Islands is the smallest democracy in the world.
Adamstown is the capital of, and the only settlement on, the Pitcairn Islands, the only British Overseas Territory that is located in the Pacific Ocean.
The history of the Pitcairn Islands begins with the colonization of the islands by Polynesians in the 11th century. Polynesian people established a culture that flourished for four centuries and then vanished. They lived on Pitcairn and Henderson Islands, and on Mangareva Island 540 kilometres (340 mi) to the northwest, for about 400 years.
Fletcher Christian was master's mate on board HMS Bounty during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the Bounty, Christian seized command of the ship from Bligh on 28 April 1789. Some of the mutineers were left on Tahiti, while Christian, eight other mutineers, six Tahitian men and eleven Tahitian women settled on isolated Pitcairn Island, and Bounty was burned. After the settlement was discovered in 1808, the sole surviving mutineer gave conflicting accounts of how Christian died.
Steven Raymond Christian is a politician, convicted sex offender and child rapist from the Pitcairn Islands. He was mayor of the islands from 1999 until 2004, when he was removed from office after being found guilty in the Pitcairn child sexual abuse trial.
In 2004, seven men living on Pitcairn Island faced 55 charges relating to sexual offences against children and young people. The accused represented a third of the island's male population and included Steve Christian, the mayor. On 24 October, all but one of the defendants were found guilty on at least some of the charges. Another six men living abroad, including Shawn Christian, who later served as mayor of Pitcairn, were tried on 41 charges in a separate trial in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005.
Thursday October Christian II was a Pitcairn Islands political leader. He was the grandson of Fletcher Christian and son of Thursday October Christian, and mother, Teraura. He was also known as "Doctor", "Duddie" or "Doodie". He spent several years on Norfolk Island but returned to Pitcairn in 1864. Christian was three quarters Polynesian.
The descendants of the Bounty mutineers include the modern-day Pitcairn Islanders as well as a little less than half of the population of Norfolk Island. Their common ancestors were the nine surviving mutineers from the mutiny on HMS Bounty which occurred in the south Pacific Ocean in 1789. Their descendants also live in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.
Pitcairn Islanders, also referred to as Pitkerners and Pitcairnese, are the inhabitants of the Pitcairn Islands, as well as people whose families were previously inhabitants and have maintained cultural connections after leaving. Most Pitcairn Islanders are Descendants of the Bounty mutineers.
Charles Richard Parkin Christian was a long-serving politician from Pitcairn. He was the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn Island for eleven years at various times between 1920 and 1957. As is commonly the case with the small population of Pitcairn, he was closely related to several other island leaders, notably cousins Edgar Allen Christian, Frederick Martin Christian, and Gerard Bromley Robert Christian. He was also the grandson of Thursday October Christian II and uncle of Ivan Christian and Warren Clive Christian. Christian was born on Pitcairn, and died in Auckland, New Zealand.
Ivan Roa Christian was a politician from Pitcairn. He was the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn Island from 1976 to 1984. As his surname suggests, he is descended from the original mutineers who settled the island, led by Fletcher Christian. He is related to a number of other island leaders, including his father Richard Edgar Christian, his uncle Charles Richard Parkin Christian and his great-grandfather Thursday October Christian II. Through his marriage to Verna Young, he is the father of Steve Christian and Brenda Christian.
Edgar Allen Christian was a politician from Pitcairn Island. He served as Chief Magistrate in 1923, 1924 and 1932. As is commonly the case with the small population of Pitcairn, he was closely related to several other island leaders, notably brother Frederick Martin Christian, cousins Gerard Bromley Robert Christian and Charles Richard Parkin Christian, and grandfather Thursday October Christian II.
Frederick Martin "Fred" Christian was a politician from Pitcairn. He was the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn Island on three occasions between 1921 and 1943, and was a Pitcairn councillor in 1956.
John Lorenzo Christian served as Chief Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island between 1952 and 1954, and again from 1961 until 1966. He resigned as Magistrate in 1966 shortly before travelling to New Zealand for an eye operation.
Christian is an English surname from the Latin "Christianus" meaning follower of Christ, from "christus" ("anointed"), created to translate the Hebrew messiah. As one of the native Manx surnames the name originates as an anglicisation of "Mac Christen"; Notable people with the surname include:
Shawn Brent Christian is a Pitcairnese politician, who served as Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands between 2014 and 2019. He previously served in prison after being convicted of child rape.
The Women of Pitcairn Island is a 1956 American adventure drama film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Lynn Bari, John Smith and Sue England.
Richard Edgar Christian was a Pitcairn Islander. He served as Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn in three spells between 1926 and 1940, and was also the island's first postmaster.
Teraura, also Susan or Susannah Young, was a Tahitian woman who settled on Pitcairn Island with the Bounty Mutineers. She took part in Ned Young's plot to murder male Polynesians who had travelled on HMS Bounty and killed Tetahiti. A tapa maker, examples of her craft are found in the British Museum and at Kew Gardens.
References
- ↑ Gerard Robert Bromley Christian The Peerage
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