Life on Norfolk Island

One of the ‘organized’ items on our tour was an evening at Norfolk Island’s famous fish fry. We’d been before on a wonderful summer evening, gathering at Orn Da Cliff for the event. You’ll no doubt work out from the name that the site is high up on a cliff, facing west. The sunset on that evening in 2017 was spectacular.

This year, though, the iffy weather caused the organizers to move the fish fry down to the marquis at Kingston, so no spectacular sunset. But we got to taste deep fried local fish, served with local delicacies made from bananas, coconuts, and sweet potato, as well as salad. The fish batter is made using coconut flour. (The fish was delicious.) Wheat is not a viable crop on Norfolk but potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and corn love the place. Part of the entertainment at the fish fry was provided by a group of young ladies demonstrating local dances which are clearly based on Polynesian dances. It’s part of their culture.

Another part of their culture is the local language. Everybody speaks English, but they have their own pidgin-Tahitian mix. On one of our tours Kath taught us a little song in Norfolkese (the chorus, anyway), accompanying the singing with her home-made ukulele.

The Islanders use what they have, make do, reuse, recycle, barter and generally make the best of things. It’s not a throw-away culture. It’s too hard and too expensive to import anything. To my surprise, since chickens are feral on Norfolk, there was an egg shortage. There is on the mainland due to bird flu. I asked and was told there’s no bird flu but there’s always an egg shortage at this time of year because it’s winter. They live by the seasons.

The Islanders are keen to share their history. On a previous visit we spent some time in Jane Evans’s shed in Music Valley. Jane is the descendant of a whaler and proudly displayed his telescope. She grew up here in this little piece of paradise. If she wanted a fishing rod she cut a length of golden cane bamboo, tied a short line to the end so that it hung down to her waist, slung her catch bag over her shoulder, and strolled the short walk to the sea. When she caught a fish it hung at waist level when she raised the pole, and she could easily slip the fish into her catch bag. She showed us two uses for bananas – which she called plun. The first, from overripe bananas, was a delicious banana bread. The second was made from green plun almost ready to ripen. She skinned the plun using a knife, then grated it. The grated plun is formed into little dumplings and fried in oil. She served it with a sauce made of cream mixed with a little bit of golden syrup. She demonstrated a wonderful contraption that removes the kernels from dried corn, then returns the core to the operator. And she showed us a number of hand-woven Norfolk Island hats (she’s wearing one), with a brief demo of the techniques used.

On another occasion we enjoyed one of the island’s progressive dinners. You might remember them from the sixties and seventies. You go to one house for appetizers, the next house for mains, and the third house for sweets. At each house the hosts would tell us their story of Norfolk. When the Pitcairners arrived on Norfolk they received fifty acres of land which was divided up over the generations. One of our hosts was given, by his mother, one acre of her thirteen acres, and three Norfolk Island pines growing on her property. One of the local sawmills cut up the trees for him, retaining one as payment. The other two he used to build his house. Barter system, see?

Another host told us she came from Queensland and had no idea she had a relationship to anyone on Norfolk until she traced her family history. She made the point that if you’ve got convicts in the family, it’s all there in the trial records. Name, place of birth, crime, punishment, where they were sent, when… Whereas law abiding citizens just faded away into the mists of time. She came to Norfolk to follow her roots and met (and married) somebody else from Victoria doing the same thing. Norfolk seems to gather up its own.

Another of our sort of semi-organized events was entry to Norfolk’s Cyclorama. It’s a fascinating exhibit which shows the history of the Pitcairners from the beginning of the Bounty’s last voyage to the settlers’ arrival on Norfolk, through a series of beautiful paintings, sound effects, and written commentary. No pictures allowed, but here’s the Cyclorama website. It’s an excellent introduction to the history of the Pitcairners who came to Norfolk.

And that brings me to Bounty Day. Next time.

This is the third post for this trip. If you missed anything, pick up the whole journey here.