The Kingston and Arthur's Vale historic area of Norfolk Island - or Norflk Ailen. Norfolk Islanders speak Norfuk, a language that arose from maritime English and Tahitian. Photo: AFP/ Michael Runkel
While much mockery has arisen from new US import tariffs levied against uninhabited places like the Heard and McDonald Islands and Falkland Islands, on Aotearoa's back doorstep some Norfolk Islanders see their mention on the tariff list as a positive.
US president Donald Trump's sweeping list of new tariffs introduced on 2 April included a 29 percent charge on imports from tiny Norfolk Island, which is about a 2-hour flight from Auckland, between New Zealand and Australia, and has a population of just over 2000 people.
One of the island's senior community figures, chief magistrate Leah Honeywood, tells Nights' Emile Donovan that because the island's main income is tourism, with no exports to the US, the amount tariffed is meaningless. But being on the list is still significant.
Honeywood says she heard about the new tariff at the same time the rest of the world did, but her reaction was enthusiasm:
"I was overly excited, because finally a major country has recognised that Norfolk is not part of Australia - absolutely ecstatic."
Norfolk is an external territory of Australia, however Honeywood says many islanders believe Norfolk should instead be in free association with Australia - or free association with New Zealand.
So Trump's tariff decree has significance for their claim, and puts the US in the interesting diplomatic situation where it could be seen to have recognised their claim to a more independent status.
Honeywood is not sure how Norfolk made it on the list, but says one theory is it could be due to mix-ups with shipping labels that should have read Norfolk, Virginia, or Norfolk, UK, rather than Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island Photo: Wikipedia
Norfolk Island's governance
Norfolk Island's population is largely made up of the descendants of a group of sailors from the HMS Bounty who famously mutinied in 1789, and a small group of Tahitians who were on the Bounty. They settled on Pitcairn Island, before their descendants shifted to Norfolk Island in the 1850s.
A painting depicting the captain and crew of the HMS Bounty being set adrift by mutineers, painted by Robert Dodd in 1790. Photo: Public Domain
Honeywood says Norfolk's political status originates 6200km away, on Pitcairn Island.
"In 1838 the Pitcairn Islanders wrote a constitution. In 1852 they brought that constitution and their form of governance to Norfolk Island - and they acted under that governance, that was sanctioned by England, for many years" she says.
"In the last few years we've reenlivened that constitution, because it was never dismissed or disputed, or no community members ever voted to have it dismissed. So it's still an active and live document as of today. With that comes a royal seal and a royal warrant granting us the protection and sovereignty of England."
However, the island's status changed after a deal was made with Australia to help Norfolk Island through the Global Financial Crisis.
"The Norfolk Island Act was made in 1979, giving us a three-tier government - we operated under that until the financial crisis - unfortunately there's been a lot of unconscionable conduct from Australia where we weren't able to provide or create any industry other than tourism, so when the GFC hit of course the downturn in the economy of tourism was going to make us an $8 million deficit for the year.
"We already had $12m in the bank - but I'd challenge Australia to tell us at what last time were they were in the black," Honeywood says.
"We were in the black, but we could see that this downturn was going to create this shortfall, so we requested the shortfall - bearing in mind that the Limited Self-Government Act required that we not approach anybody else but Australia for a loan. We've had loans from Australia in the past and we've always paid them back - but this time it seemed to be a little bit different, and so they tried to create what they called a road-map, to completely take over Norfolk.
"But Norfolk's status of ownership has never changed since its status of discovery by Cook in 1774, so [Australian prime minister Anthony] Albanese and [Australian minister for trade and tourism] Don Farrell need to go back to their history books - they said in the paper that Norfolk is part of Australia, well ... Britain authorised Australia to act in authority of Norfolk", she says.
And in recent years, there has been a strong movement among Norfolk Islanders that they should establish separation from Australia.
Honeywood says the biggest challenge is generating new sources of income to the island.
"Tourism is our one and only major industry - and that comes down to Australia not allowing us to create anything other than tourism.
"By that, we looked at creating medical marijuana and that wasn't allowed, we were going to be the first in the world to do gay marriage in the South Pacific, so there's a lot of this stuff that makes tourism our only industry, and when Covid and all that hit it makes it really hard."
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