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From the Wikipedia article posted in one of the comments: Although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century,
by DoreenMichele 5y ago
From the Wikipedia article posted in one of the comments:
Although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when they were rediscovered by Europeans.
In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the Bounty, along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, eleven women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the Bounty.
So that's likely why you've heard of them, though I don't think I've ever read Mutiny on the Bounty nor seen it retold in film or similar.
I currently have an image of Midway on my laptop and I've been thinking about how remote islands end up with life. They typically emerge from the ocean as a barren outcropping of rock. Birds stop and rest there, leaving behind poo and sometimes seeds in the poo sprout.
Coconuts can float in salt water for long periods and are typically the first trees found on remote islands. Sometimes insects get carried there on the winds of powerful storms and then diversify into a separate species because they can't fly far enough to leave again on their own steam.
I wonder what we might learn from small islands that might help humans resolve their problems and survive climate change.
- doublec 5y agoThere are Tahitian legends about Pitcairn Island, referred to as Hitiaurevareva, showing that there was travel to and from the island in the past. There are Mangarevan legends also. In the Tahitian legend of Rata, which would be familiar to NZ Māori and other Polynesian people, he goes from Tahiti to Pitcairn to rescue his mother. Tupaia who guided Captain Cook around the pacific, and who acted as translator, drew a map of the Islands he knew and visited and this included Pitcairn. Tupaia was a contempory of the Tahitian women who went on the Bounty to Pitcairn so he had been there in recent history before the Bounty arrived. One of the Tahitian men on the Bounty knew of the island and helped guide Fletcher there. I often wonder why no Polynesians went back after the Bounty settled.
- DoreenMichele 5y agoI wonder if those oral traditions are being recorded and shared somehow. I assume you are talking about oral histories from locals.
- doublec 5y agoThe Tahitian legends are documented in the book "Ancient Tahiti" by Teuira Henry. "Ancient Tahitian Society" by Douglas Oliver also mentions it. "Vikings of the Sunrise" by Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck) mentions the Mangarevan legends. There's also other accounts around. I first saw it written on a sign at the archaeological remains of an old Marae in Mo'orea. The histories of Pitcairn are kept alive through cultural studies taught by the islanders to the school kids.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bravura 5y agoYes double, where did you learn this? It's fascinating
- doublec 5y agoHere's one account of a legend involving Pitcairn: https://stranded.io/2020/05/24/a-tahitian-legend-of-hitiaurevareva/ https://stranded.io/2020/05/24/a-tahitian-legend-of-hitiaure... Here's a great account of Tupaia's map: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1512369 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1... Also see the books in my sibling comment.