Customer Reviews

Pitcairn: Paradise Lost

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The time she spent on Pitcairn as an outsider, gives Kathy Marks' account an air of authority, as well as an appropriate sense of claustrophobia. Marks sheds light on something that stood out to me in the news coverage; why many Pitcarin women not only defended the men who abused these girls, but shunned those brave enough to stand up to them. Essentially, their own husbands, sons, brothers and fathers were perpetrators too. Nonetheless, my intellectual understanding of their torn loyalties does not excuse their treatment of the women who testified for the prosecution. Colleen McCullogh deserves a special mention (her husband is a Norfolk Islander). She said that they break the girls in young on Polynesian Islands. This case involves grown men sexually assaulting 9, 10, 11 and 12 year old children. Indefensible.

I just finished reading this book after two days. It is written by Kathy Marks, a journalist who was selected to cover the trials of the community members convicted of raping children on Pitcairn Island. The author provides possible explainations as to why the systematic abuse of children could continue for so long without adequate parental, community, church or government intervention. To the victims who showed immense courage in telling their stories, I applaud you. One can only hope that these deplorable acts will not be perpetuated on future generations of children on the island.