Over the past few decades the Pacific region has undergone much change through decolonisation and postcolonial (re)adjustment. Political change in new and existing Pacific nations is marked by efforts to re-conceptualise identities, histories and futures. Descriptions of islands as fragile, small, peripheral and dependent are often taken for granted; reiterated within a discourse of ‘vulnerability’. Such rhetoric sets up a perception of what constructs ‘islandness’ or island societies. This article uses a case study of Pitcairn Island, the last remaining British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, to argue for a theorisation of social capital as a counter-narrative to such discourse. It contends that an understanding of the historical trajectories of sustainable livelihoods (SL) show that strengths emerge from livelihood strategies specifically adapted to such isolated places. This moves beyond the spatial rhetoric of colonial and postcolonial theory by showing how the materiality of place and people are fundamental parts of colonial and postcolonial formations in the present.
The Mitigation of Vulnerability: Mutiny, resilience and reconstitution: a case study of Pitcairn Island
Maria Amoamo
This case study of Pitcairn Island, the last remaining British Overseas Territory in the Pacific argues that strengths emerge from livelihood strategies specifically adapted to such isolated places.