Jacqui Christian on "Back to the Future" (regarding the future of Pitcairn Island)

my very dear friends Tom and Betty Christian who live on Pitcairn Island and spent time with us in our home in Florida have four lovely daughters the oldest of whom is Jackie Christian and she is here to talk to us about growing up on Pitcairn what a remarkable childhood growing up on the island educated in New Zealand she practiced as a pharmacist in New Zealand Australia and the UK and she sold her own pharmacy on Australia and returned to live on patron in 2006 why because she wanted to see the survival of Pitcairn she wanted to make sure that it had a sustainable economy Jackie's a member of the Council for the government of Pitcairn Islands and holds the portfolio for Community Development how apart how appropriate Jackie and her partner Lesley Jake's would from whom we heard yesterday are working toward creating a sustainable future for Pitcairn and she'll now tell us how they plan to accomplish this remarkable feat Jackie Thank You Barbara that's one way to make me nervous as tell me I'm not on now well good morning ladies and gentlemen oh I should say what's away all your Lee it's so good unfamiliar and thank you all it all for coming oh I should say it's a privilege to be here today and thank you for coming greetings from Pitkin island watch to see if I can work you get it there we go my parents both spoke at your previous conference in 2005 and they send their greetings to you all I think you saw them yesterday on the on the Skype link unfortunately due to its failing health my father is no longer able to travel and suffering from dementia well so I feel I have big shoes to fill today so my title was actually Back to the Future corny some people say but fitting I think as I went back to help people pick can to create a future all future starts with a past though so let's go back a little in time and share with you a little of my background I was born as Barbara said the eldest of four daughters - Tom and Betty Christian I'm a seventh generation direct descendant of Fletcher Christian and Mauer - ah there's a little bit more recent photo a heritage I've always been proud of I grew up on Pitcairn and have fond childhood memories I had three years before my first sibling arrived and I remember precious things like fishing with my dad as a very young child in the most difficult of places to catch his favorite fish than then we I spent a lot of time with my grandparents Millie Warren and and weren't sorry Millie and Warren Christian and my grandmother would produce the most amazing delicious food from that stone oven and her open fire bolts while power would be in the workshop or on the on the veranda carving away and making carvings by we often played under the banyan trees after school and were often yelled at to come down so that he didn't fall when we had climbed all the way to the top to make paper airplanes often summer afternoons were spelts spent swimming in the surf and generally hanging out with my cousins who were boys there are about 16 local children at school when I attended Palau and at times more when the teacher or pastor had families with them we have a primary school and high school is then continued by correspondence it's not always easy to complete a year's weather work when you have to be self-motivated and you're in a classroom of all grades but at the age of 15 my father took me to New Zealand so that I could continue my high school education and I completed my school certificate year at long Berne Adventist College in the outskirts of Palmerston North we have British citizenship and passports on Pitcairn and do not have automatic entry to New Zealand to work or study anymore but thankfully my dad was well-traveled and can be quite persuasive so he was able to get my visa to study and I continued in the third term which was a bit of a challenge that late in the year but I've always been adventurous and stimulated by challenged and I flourished in a classroom of children of my own age my class alone had 30 children bigger than the entire Pickens school the school was boarding in co-ed with lots of social activities which I enjoyed but I was sick with colds and flu for most of the first year as my immune system was challenged with the new bugs in the year Palmerston North is a landlocked city on a flat plain surrounded by mountains and it's cold windy and damp it didn't help my health either and it was quite a different environment from Pitkin I used to ride a bicycle about five miles return to town every week to speak to my parents on the ham radio as it was the only means of communication and the wind was almost always in my face however I spent over three years there before I went home in time for our bicentennial celebrations in 1990 my parents had steered me towards studying medicine and I had read a number of biographies and books about missionary doctors to Africa and China which I found inspiring as I have a passion for health however I had a friend who is a GP at the time and I always tried to learn from people who have what you want and so I became aware of how long it would take for me to become a specialist which is what I thought I should be I wanted to be back on Pitkin by a specific timeframe and so the the the length of course was too long so I spent hours in the Koreas guidance office looking for medicine Medical Careers until I discovered pharmacy I had always helped in the family enterprises that mum and dad had at home and pharmacy seemed to be a good mix of business and health so it caught my attention the education process was also much shorter than medicine so I chose becoming a pharmacist as my career I knew that it would also allow me the opportunity to do locum work so that it could fund and fit in with my dream of living on Pitcairn no one on Pitkin really understood what a pharmacist was I think however my parents had a friend in California who used to send us supplies when I was a child before we had a doctor on picking I moved to Dunedin in March 1990 to attend in the New Zealand School of Pharmacy at Otago University I loved Dunedin it's a hilly harbour city it was colder than Palmerston North but I felt at home there and would happily go back the proximity to the ocean made all the difference I think but I also bought it with Pitcairn a Ruth Mansfield and her husband Philip who helped me to settle in just being around Pitcairn again and the language and the culture made me feel at home my university degree was self-funded as the Picken government only covers high school so like many other students I got a loan an ayap I and I got a part-time job it was a busy time and the study load was heavy but I've always enjoyed routine and structure and managed to fit it all in and still pass mom had lobbied successfully on my behalf for me to become a New Zealand citizen so that I could attend the University as a New Zealand student rather than an overseas student as we did not have a government tertiary program otherwise I would not have been able to study pharmacy or medicine I completed my four year bachelor of pharmacy degree in December 1992 I had married to a young to an Australian who may had met at long burn and we moved after a few times to follow his career and ended up in Australia I looked around for an opportunity and I believe that God led me to a location to open a new pharmacy attached to a medical center it took almost a year to have the building built and the business ready to open but a year later we opened for business the other local pharmacist in the area said I was mad and that the business would fault but the business grew according to plan thanks to God's blessing and long hours of focused effort Pitkin life had taught us to work hard and I developed an excellent professional reputation and decided to stay on in Australia even when my relationship fell apart the following year Kamel pharmacy still operates today and most years as in two weeks ago I still work there for the owners who are good friends of mine and summer ex-employees I now work with the children of the people that I trained their support is much appreciated and this still helps to fund our pet care lifestyle and keep my Australian pharmacy registration current I became known as the picking girl in the local community and presented a number of talks to on Pitcairn to interested groups in my spare time I started the pitkin future projects fund with some influential friends with the intention to raise funds for infrastructure projects on Picken we started with a calendar to raise awareness of the organization which was well supported by pick owners and others of Ireland this was not shared by those on Ireland though thanks mainly to the previous commissioner then after constantly battling with him over a couple of years and with little support from the island council to a project that they would benefit from I decided to close the organization down it was a defeat but I felt that we couldn't get anywhere from off Island the funds that we raised were sent to the Pitkin Island office at about the time that Leslie Bane came commissioner and was used to best build this first stage of the shelter at the square I had always felt privileged to have an education and wanted to contribute back to my community so in 2001 I sold my pharmacy with the intention to return to Pitkin however the investigation for the trial started at about the same time thus I decided to delay my return I took the opportunity to do more study at the college of natural medicine in Brisbane and gave massage and acupuncture skills that I thought might be useful as a means of supporting myself when I returned to pit again knowing that there wasn't a pharmacy job for me there the trials caused great division in the entire Pitkin community and our people were demoralized with very little hope for the future when I returned to Pitcairn on the 7th of December 2006 we were well below the starting mark to create a future people weren't talking to each other and the community was divided it was a difficult time for all pet owners and there were definite lines drawn to rebuild we needed to start talking again I looked for ways to build bridges and to get people interacting although it was scary and sometimes unpleasant bits by bit we progressed sometimes little things sorry like a basket of oranges mended a rift and we took a step forward together December is normally a festive month leading up to Christmas and we usually have an entertainment committee to arrange functions throughout the year no one felt much like celebrating Christmas that year but I talked to some people who felt that life must continue and the children shouldn't miss out so we reformed the entertainment committee and prepared for Christmas as normal Christmas is usually a big event and many people spend a lot of time making things or growing special produce to give as gifts understandably it wasn't well attended nor was a New Year celebration the week later or even bounty date later in the month but we persevered with arranging public events on our traditionally celebrated dates we even added a new function and celebrated mutiny Day on April 28 2007 my father gave a historical talk at this time that is a highlight in my memory of him especially now as he's suffering from dementia as months passed more people attended the functions and we continued organizing events until others were ready to take over and run the committee themselves I was real happy about that as that was the idea I had gone to home with no job prospects I had left a top paying pharmacy management job with wonderful 9 to 5 hours the shortest days I've ever worked on Pitcairn I lived with mom and dad and had no job but I helped in the family business and started some desperately needing maintenance around the property that mom and dad could no longer manage to do I also helped growing fruits and vegetables and I'm not the world's greatest gardener and cleared our overgrown orchards our families all families have Gardens but this too was a challenge as we don't have a male in the family to drive the tractor and plow the field so I applied to have tractor driving lessons this wasn't welcomed by all but not prevented I had driven a car for years and my favorite was my Pajero four-wheel drive so I didn't need many lessons to learn to drive the tractor much to their surprise soon I was allowed to drive the tractor and we were able to prepare our own gardens I also started to look for a block of land to build my own home after living with in my own place for many years it was a challenge to live with mom and dad again mom had always reserved a block for me but upon returning it looked really small and wasn't the location that I now wanted I wanted to build on the other side of the island at first but as my parents were needing more and more help I settled on a block about a hundred feet in front of their place but when no one else was using the land land is still free on Pitcairn and I have an awesome view that I could never afford anywhere else the land was covered with scrubby trees known as pulau not having used two chainsaw before this was a challenge for me but some helpful friends showed me what to do and when started to clear the block it was hard going and the trees have extensive roots which we grew quickly so it looked like we weren't winning it was also a sloping block and needed cutting before I could build so I could see it would take a while there are expert staff working on the island who were not busy full-time so they helped me and showed me how to use tools like a chainsaw they weren't welcome everywhere as small communities don't always take kindly to strangers in fact we were in Blakeley Island last week and the sign was above this house which made me smile of Islanders welcome maybe small island communities have the same attitudes no matter where they are in the world I had to put the physical project of building on hold for a while but I got the house plans drawn up my good friend by my good friend and architect Dez Donald in sin and Brisbane and we started the process of ordering the building materials which took a year to arrive anyway another good way to interact with everyone was through work so I applied for jobs as they became available and soon I started working in the hardware store I had spent 17 years in retail and still enjoy it so I undertook it with enthusiasm there was no real recorded inventory and most of the items had not been priced for sale as they had been accumulating as leftover stock from the various government projects that Leslie had found the funding for so I kept myself busy setting it up for sale and worked hard for the $50 a month that I was paid a far cry from a six-figure pharmacists income but I've always been more motivated by doing something useful than working for money so I was grateful for the opportunity in February 2007 Leslie arrived on Islands I had met Leslie once before in Oakland not long after he became commissioner he talked about the government restructure and of devolving operational responsibility to the island this was something I fully supported as I felt that pic Kenner's had had little say in the planning of our future in the past I offered to help and we started to work together Leslie had accomplished more for Pitkin than any other commissioner in terms of sourcing funding for infrastructure and that along with the government restructure meant that there was a lot of change which is not always welcomed it was tough going in that first year in 2008 Steve Christian returned to the workforce steve has many skills and is one of the best machinery operators on island my job in the hardware shop gave me the opportunity one day to ask him if he would clear my land and prepare it to build a house he hesitated as we hadn't spoken for a number of years but he didn't say no I told him to take his time and didn't push for a decision a few weeks later I heard the sound of the digger coming down the road I called Leslie to tell him the exciting news that Steve was coming to clear my land little steps like this one continue to encourage us that the community could and would heal with time and the right leadership Steven olive have been the leaders on Pitcairn for many years and another big step was when they opened Christian's cafe as we still well there's my house I'm be behind as as we still weren't talking I called olive to make sure that it would be okay if mom and I came to their coffee morning opening she assured us that everyone was welcome their house is just along the road from the hardware shop and I watched the quad bikes arrive as representatives from every family attended the opening I saw Leslie's bike arrived and thought that at least there'd be one friendly face so I closed up shop and walked over the chatter stopped as I walked in and everyone turned to stare olive being the leader that she is approached me and offered me a coffee which I greatly received you could feel the tension disappear as she led the way of creating the future together I will never forget that day the the cafe opened weakly which provided further opportunities to interact this along with the local businesses the cafe opened weekly this along with other local businesses that sprang up facilitated the opportunity not only to create a cash society but gave people reasons to interact again in early 2008 we formed PDT we became development team this in itself was a milestone it's a group consisted of people from all across sides of political spectrum in the community we produce the government operational structure as it is today we produce the government operational structure as it is today along with numerous policies and procedures to underpin it it was an exciting time and we accomplished a lot though there is still so much to do when the government of Pitcairn Islands officially started in 2009 I gained one of the four division manager positions as the division manager for finance and economics the other three positions are the natural resources the operations and Community Development these four roles were designed to take over the Commissioner responsibilities to bring them on Ireland from off Island they were also answerable to Council rather than council deferring to the commissioner for most of the decision-making Leslie's role as commissioner was to seize by - by April 2010 council was to work in partnership directly with the governor's office in Wellington and the FCM differed in the UK rather than everything going through the Commissioner it was a lot of change but meant that we as locals are now responsible and accountable for budgets and job performance it was intended to be backed up with the training which is yet to be executed bit counters are traditionally good with their hands and are also very resourceful but we could do with more people with administrative skills but we also need the funding to pay for it as we are expected to operate a government there's the same standard as any other overseas territory we often have one person working in a department that would be many more overseas but with so few people and pathetically low wages and the budget cuts in the UK it is still a huge challenge this will need to change for the government to become professional and proficient as we work for less now than when my father started working for the Pitkin government in the 1950s thanks to Leslie's time as commissioner Pitcairn now has internet telephone and TV these are all necessary to thrive in the global marketplace of the 21st century it was so exciting to get the call from mum in October 2006 when her telephone became live she called me on my cell phone as I was at work as soon as she was connected even though she didn't even know her own number yet much to her her number it showed up on my phone and I sent it to my sisters and much to her delight and surprise they called her back it was a groundbreaking stop for pickin and a big step in dissolving the feeling of isolation we already had electricity which is produced by diesel generator for 14 hours a day but these necessities have also increased the cost of living on Pitkin there has been little increase in income and in fact pequeños have a lower standard of living now than in the 1970s but it's much like the decline in other Western societies as I saw comparisons being made of incomes buying power and standards of living in the USA recently on TV when I was in Australia transport and accessibility is still the major challenge that we have to overcome to develop a sustainable economy on Pitkin we have to solve this if we are going to build the private-sector economy that we need we really only have tourism and small-scale exports to build with the most difficult part for developing tourism is getting to Pitkin which currently means catching a plane to Tahiti another one to manga River and then a 2 day boat trip to pick in a five-day visit still means at least six to eight days of traveling time our supply ship calls four times a year and there is opportunity to visit Pitkin via manga River on it for 2 or 10 day visits each quarter it has only capacity for a maximum 96 people per year which is not enough to build an economy on we need about 500 tourists a year who stay on Island for five days at a time to create a more secure future for Pitcairn with tourism there and I have invested into Pitkin travel where we charter a professional skipper and yacht with the goal to offer more frequent and affordable travel to pick in it is still early days and we have had three successful charters this year with more planned for 2013 one day we hope we to have a weekly service to pick in to facilitate tourism and allow locals and their families to travel currently most locals and their families cannot afford to go to Pitcairn or leave the island currently most of our tour is ornithologists who come to see our endemic species on Pitcairn and our world heritage Henderson Island or ham radio operators who want to come to our remote locations 2dx and of course those of you who love our famous bow to history our current exports are of a small scale but we don't need huge quantities to make a difference to the standard of living we have delicious pure honey that we ship worldwide thanks to internet waters and our disease-free status we are developing a coffee export as the delicious Arabica coffee has grown wild on Pitkin for years and was exported in previous years we have dried bananas and other tropical fruit and that we have been supplying since 1995 but once again growth is limited by our quarterly shipping schedule our urgent problem and of course the souvenirs which you all know our urgent problem now is a demographic one currently our population including expats is just 60 half of whom are over 50 years in age we do not have enough young people to take over the physically demanding work and to replace ourselves we need to attract more young people to the island to live yet it is difficult for most to give up their lifestyles around the world and to come back with no real job prospects to come to if we can create the private sector and make accessibility easier we will have a better chance to repopulate this is our top priority as council members and we are looking at ways to encourage immigrants we have had a settlement visa process that's been available for the past seven years for people to come even if they are not related to pit corners our community is now in a position to welcome people who have skills and want to contribute to island life my younger sister came home four months ago with her two boys to take care of mum and dad and what while I'm away and it was lovely to see the community embrace her and see how much joy two extra children can bring to our small community we hope that she can encourage her husband to visit and they will move back to live we especially need families with children to come for long term sustainability and I believe Pitcairn is as safe as anywhere in the world to raise children with lots of benefits for family life so what is the future of Pitkin this question has been asked in every documentary made I think and I don't have a definite answer either but what I do know is that we create our own future and if we as pit Kona's work together with a common vision of creating a future together if we can get the foreign investment to improve our transport and accessibility and continued helpful marketing from people such as yourselves that we have a unique gorgeous hospitable place in the blue Pacific worth visiting then we have a great chance and we won't rest until we've given it everything we've got my father always used to finish his talks with these lines from from Rosalind young our author Ken author's book o pickin I love thee dear land of my birth no place can be dearer in all this wide earth where era am i 12 or wherever I roam I think of the always there's my home sweet home

Channel: Ted Cookson

Views: 18,199

Keywords: Jacqui Christian, BPC 2012, Pitcairn Island, HMS Bounty (ship), HMAV Bounty, Pitcairn Islands Study Center, Angwin, California, Napa Valley, FriendsofPITCAIRN Yahoo! Group, Pitcairn Islands Study Group, Mutiny on the Bounty, MOTB, Pacific Ocean, Polynesia

Id: VKr0l9oX530

Length: 29min 15sec (1755 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 27 2012