Only 46 descendants of the ship’s rebels still live in this British island lost in the Pacific, including only three teenagers, leaving for New Zealand. Deposuction that threatens the future of the island.
by Mike Leyral (Papeete, French Polynesia, Correspondence)
In 1789, the most famous mutiny in history was led by the second of Bounty, Fletcher Christian, in the South Pacific: he abandoned Captain Bligh and the sailors who remained faithful to the latter in a boat. To escape the punishment of the British navy, nine mutineers, but also twelve women and six Polynesian men, are looking for a refuge for several months.
It will be Pitcairn, where some of their descendants always live. Interpreted in the cinema by Errol Flynn (1933), Clark Gable (1935), Marlon Brando (1962) and Mel Gibson (1984), Fletcher Christian has become an emblematic figure of resistance and freedom. Nearly two and a half centuries later, the forty-six inhabitants of this window island lost in the middle of the peaceful ocean face a disaster: the programmed closure (probably at the end of November) of their school.
an exile without return
Today, the large classroom only welcomes three teenage girls from 12 to 15 years old, because it has been twelve years since there have been the slightest birth to Adamstown, the village The island. However, young girls are preparing, as well as their mothers and their teacher, leaving for New Zealand. A departure scheduled for December 18.
“The school will close and it will be very sad, because it means that there are no more children on the island. But it can reopen later”, hopes Cushana Warren-Peu, 13 years old , one of the college students. She wants to become a mechanic. “After my studies, I would like to go home, or maybe stay in New Zealand, I don’t know.”
This indecision is the anxiety of Pitcairn. The young people who leave rarely come back: the comfort of modern life or the meeting of a companion discourage the return of most of them. For the mayor of the island, the future therefore goes through immigration. “We have to open up to others, accept their installation in Pitcairn, if we want to continue to exist,” is alarmed by Charlene Warren. Because half of the population has exceeded 60 years.
The Dean of Men, Steve Christian, 71, says he is pessimistic. “We are going to be fewer and fewer and that’s what we try to avoid, because we cannot leave this place and go elsewhere in the world, where there is nothing for us: C ‘Is our house here, where we grew up, “he worries.
This aging threatens the survival of the island in the very short term. Ships cannot dock in Pitcairn. Freight and visitors must go through the boat … when the ocean allows. When the island will no longer have men capable of handling it in the tumultuous waters of Bounty Bay, where the Bligh ship was burned, Pitcairn will be cut off from the world. It is therefore necessary to bring new blood to the four families of the island, two of which, the Christian and the Young, still bear the names of the mutineers who had challenged their captain.
You have 46.15% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.