This Go Fund Me is organised by the Norfolk Island Museum Trust.

Your donation will be used to fund transporting the Pitcairn Register from the Royal Museum Greenwich in London to Norfolk Island and for a purpose-built, environmentally secure display case to be purchased. On Norfolk Island the Register will be on exhibition in the Pier Store Museum, accessible to the community whose origins it records, and those interested in Norfolk and Pitcairn Islanders’ extraordinary history.

The Pitcairn Register is a register of the births, deaths, marriages and other details that occurred on Pitcairn Island between 1790-1854. Pitcairn Island was settled in 1790 after the arrival of the Bounty with 12 Polynesian women (and a baby girl) from Tahiti, Huahine and Tupua'i; 6 Polynesian men from Tahiti, Ra’iatea and Tupua’i; and 9 of the infamous Bounty mutineers. The Register was created by John Buffett in 1823, who married into the Pitcairn Island community. Some years later, another Englishman, George Nobbs, married an islander and eventually took over the duty of scribe of the Register. In 1856, the entire Pitcairn Island community relocated to Norfolk Island, although two families returned to Pitcairn in the 1860s.

In 2022 Mervyn Buffett, a descendant of John Buffett and one of Norfolk Island’s most respected elders, discovered that the Pitcairn Register is held in the collections of the Royal Museum Greenwich. Mervyn and his partner Clare approached the Museum, and this launched a quest for the Norfolk Island Museum Trust (NIMT) to negotiate a long-term loan of the Register to NIMT to be housed within the Pitcairn-Norfolk Gallery in the Pier Store Museum. In November 2024 a document with signatures from over 600 members of the Norfolk Island community supporting the loan was personally delivered to the Royal Museum Greenwich.

With loan documentation complete, the NIMT now needs to secure funding to bring the Pitcairn Register ‘hoem’.

All funds from this Go Fund Me along with other fundraising efforts will be spent on transporting the Pitcairn Register from England to Norfolk Island to arrive in time for the 170th anniversary of the arrival of the Pitcairn Islanders on Norfolk on 8 June 2026. Transportation needs to occur according to strict guidelines required by Royal Museum Greenwich and will cost in the region of AUD$35,000. A custom-made cabinet will also be purchased to ensure the Register is housed within specific environmental conditions. The cabinet and its transport will cost in the region of AUD$10,000.

The NIMT invites all Pitcairn and Norfolk Island descendants living locally and across the world, together with supporters who understand the importance of bringing this foundational document to Norfolk Island and to be among the people whose origins it records, to donate to this Go Fund Me.

Thaenks fe aklan, prinke, thank you!