Is (the possibility of) Unemployment a Crime? A Field Note from Pitcairn Island

Abstract

Holly, three year-old Olive, and I have just returned from almost four months away. We left Australia on 2 May 2016, travelled to Auckland, New Zealand by plane, and then to Tauranga, some four hours by bus to the southeast, to meet the quarterly 15-day supply ship run to Pitcairn Island. We were filled with hope when we left New Zealand shores on 6 May 2016, a trip involving much planning and years of anticipation. I could consider the trip aboard the rocky <i>Claymore II</i> and arrival on the five-square kilometre patch in the South Pacific the fulfilment of one of my dreams. The reality was that it was a tour of duty for science. And, as we came to realise, this service became a linguistic and emotional <i>trial by fire</i>, a minor cliché.