Shima
ISSN: 1834-6057
Micronationality Anthology
- Introduction: Islands and Micronationality (v2) 10.21463/shima.im.anth.int
- Captain Calamity’s Sovereign State Of Forvik: Micronations and the Failure of Cultural Nationalism
Micronations, Forvik, cultural nationalism, Shetland, independence movementsMicronations are often viewed as humorous phenomena, but, when linked to serious political movements, they have the potential to exert real political influence. In 2008, Stuart Hill (known as Captain Calamity) founded the micronation of Forvik on a small island in the archipelago of Shetland (Scotland, UK). Arguing that Shetland had never become part of the Scottish state, Hill sought to use Forvik as the springboard for a Shetland-wide self-determination movement. Although Hill’s rationale was primarily economic, Shetland possessed a strong pre-existing sense of cultural distinctiveness and tendencies toward cultural nationalism, which came to be popularly associated with Hill’s project. The Forvik micronation, however, received virtually no popular support, and, since its founding, Hill has struggled to make his argument heard through an amused global media and a hostile court system. Ultimately, this micronation has been detrimental to the development of a genuine Shetland self-determination movement and has weakened Shetland’s culturally rooted resistance to wider Scottish nationalism. This study illustrates how, far from bolstering associated nationalist movements, some micronations may lower them into ridicule and defeat.
- Contested Space: National and Micronational Claims to the Spratly/Truong Sa Islands - A Vietnamese Perspective
Truong Sa, Spratly Islands, Bien Dong, South China Sea, Vietnam, micronationsThe archipelago located in the eastern Pacific Ocean around 4-11 degrees North and 109-117 degrees East, known in English language as the Spratly Islands, in Vietnamese as the Truong Sa Islands and in Chinese as the Nansha Islands, has been subject to contesting claims that have intensified in recent decades with the growing perception that the area has substantial sub-surface oil and/or mineral deposits that could prove a lucrative asset to whichever country can establish a definitive claim over and related exploitation of them. Following an account of Vietnam’s historical presence in the area, the article discusses some of the more fanciful micronational claims that have been made over the region and Vietnamese efforts to consolidate their claim to sovereignty in the face of contesting claims from other regional powers. [Editorial Note — Shima invites submissions offering other perspectives on disputed island and marine sovereignty issues in the South East Asia Pacific region.]
- Queer Sovereignty: The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands
Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, micronationThe Gay and Lesbian Kingdom (G&LK) seceded from Australia in 2004. Emperor Dale Parker Anderson declared independence upon raising the rainbow pride flag on Cato Island in the Coral Sea Island. The decision to secede was made as a response to the Australian government’s 2004 action in presenting the Amendment of the Marriage Act 1969. In giving my account I draw on a 2007 interview, correspondence with Emperor Dale and other ethnographic material concerning the G&LK. Among other articulations, I consider its secessionist move in light of Linda Bishai’s critique in Forgetting Ourselves (2004). This is that for all its liberationist motivation, secession is essentialist in its conception, and inherently anti-democratic; her prediction is that its preoccupation with state formation is making it irrelevant in the age of ‘rhizomatic’ community networks. In its micronationalist ‘queering’, however, I find secessionist politics more relevant in late modernity, not less, as the pluralising democratic politics of identity and representation are increasingly unable to contest key outcomes of ‘family values’ and ‘national values’ rhetoric in the 21st Century. [Editorial Note — This is a revised version of an essay that was originally published in the journal Cosmopolitan Civil Societies in September 2009]
- “This Mere Speck in the Surface of the Waters”: Rockall aka Waveland
Rockall, Waveland, Greenpeace, UNCLOSRockall is a tiny granite knoll isolated in the stormy waters of the North Atlantic. It is not habitable and has of itself no economic value. However, given its location it has been a prize insofar as at one time it was thought its possession could bring control of an exclusive economic zone. Iceland, Ireland and Denmark laid claim in addition to the UK, which had annexed Rockall in 1955, the last territory to be taken into the British Empire. In 1972 Rockall was declared to be part of Scotland. However the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (1982) now precludes rocks incapable of supporting life to be awarded economic zones. Interest in Rockall then reverted to symbolism especially in its occupation by Greenpeace in 1997 when the global state of Waveland was declared from Rockall’s summit, with Rockall itself as the capital. Greenpeace stayed on Rockall longer than anybody else and a claim has been established to it thereby, but Waveland itself collapsed with the failure of the company that serviced its online presence.
- North Dumpling Island: Micronationality, the Media and the American Dream
North Dumpling Island, Dean Kamen, micronationalityNorth Dumpling Island is a 3-acre stretch of land off the Atlantic Coast of the United States. The island has had five known owners since 1639, the most recent of whom is famed inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen. In 1986, Kamen launched a humorous campaign for the island’s secession in response to the State of New York’s denial of permission to build a wind turbine tower on his residentially zoned island property. The following article traces highlights of the media’s response to that campaign and discusses how Kamen has leveraged media publicity around his claims for micronationality to draw attention to his scientific and environmental initiatives, including a micronational model for sustainable energy consumption.
- In a Stew: Lamb Island’s flirtation with micronationality and the related consideration of a local representative body for the Southern Moreton Bay Islands
Lamb Island, micronation, South Moreton Bay, Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI), QueenslandThis research note profiles the background to the short-lived secessionist impulse on Lamb Island in Southern Moreton Bay, Queensland (Australia) in 2013, the role that the media played in disseminating news about the initiative, the manner in which it was represented and its local significance. Further to this, the note outlines the manner in which discussions concerning the viability of an independent council for the four inhabited Southern Moreton Bay Islands (Lamb, Karragarra. Macleay and Russell) relate to the impetus for Lamb Island’s flirtation with micronationality.
- Shards of the Shattered Japanese Empire That Found Themselves as Temporary Micronations
Micronations, Japan, Bonin/Ogasawara, Izu islandsIn this short research note, I present a couple of instances in the 20th Century when some Japanese islands temporarily became tiny independent political entities not because of a conscious push to make them so, but because the islands went overlooked in the midst of international political maneuvering. In a manner of speaking, the islands were small and insignificant (and, being islands, not part of mainland Japan) isolated enough that when world leaders drew broad sets of lines on a map, it was easy to overlook the fact these islands had fallen through the cracks.
- “Give Me Fish, Not Federalism”: Outer Baldonia and Performances of Micronationality
Atlantic Canada, Outer Baldonia, micronation, performance, environment, diplomacyIn 1949 Russell Arundel, an American businessman and sport tuna fisherman, asserted the sovereignty of a small island off the south coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Arundel drafted a Declaration of Independence for the ‘Principality of Outer Baldonia’ and declared the nascent micronation to be a space of recreation, relaxation and tuna-fishing. International newspapers began to cover the story, and a critical letter in the Soviet Liternaya Gazeta prompted a flurry of tongue-in-cheek responses from Baldonian ‘citizens’. Although ownership of the island was transferred to the Nova Scotia Bird Society in 1973, the history of Outer Baldonia reveals a great deal about the types of social performances that correspond with declarations of micronational sovereignty. This article explores how the events surrounding the creation of Outer Baldonia reflect mid-20th Century elite attitudes towards nature and wilderness, as well as non-state diplomacy in the Cold War era.
- Islonia: Micronationality as an expression of livelihood issues
Islonia, Dry Island, micronation, absurdity, livelihood, shima, aquapelagoThis article describes the manner in which the owner-inhabitants of Dry Island, off the coast of the Western Scottish Highlands, claimed micronational status (as ‘Islonia’) in 2013, examines their reasons for claiming this status and identifies the results of the venture. Drawing on these characterisations, the article discusses the expression of local livelihood issues in micronational discourse and the manner in which local issues pertaining to Dry Island/Islonia can be understood with regard to the concepts of shima and aquapelagism advanced within Island Studies.
- Fleeting and Partial Autonomy: A historical account of quasi-micronational initiatives on Lundy Island and their contemporary reconfiguration on MicroWiki
Lundy, temporary autonomous zones, micronations, virtual micronations, MicroWikiMicronations are small territories that have been identified as independent by individuals or communities without recognition of that status by either the nation states within whose borders they fall and/or relevant international bodies. The term is of comparatively recent coinage and has largely been used to refer to entities that have claimed autonomous status since the 1960s. As a result, discussions of the phenomenon (such as those included the 2014 theme issue of Shima on islands and micronationality — v8n1) have tended to avoid engagement with the pre-history of the concept and have not examined how and why certain locations (and, especially in this context, types of islands) have leant themselves to quasi-micronational ventures at particular historical points. This article discusses the manner in which the history of the (now indisputably) English island of Lundy has seen a number of quasi-micronational incidents and outlines the shifting nature of their bases and manifestations. The article’s analyses emphasise the significant role that geography and, particularly, (in)accessibility play in forging micronational endeavours. The final section expands this frame of reference to discuss the imaginative reconfiguration of quasi-micronational initiatives on Lundy through the virtual micronation of the ‘New Kingdom of Lundy’ constituted within the online MicroWiki arena.
- Micro Nation — Micro-Comedy
Television, online television, comedy, micronations, Pullamawang IslandThis article considers how the concept of micronationality served as a launching pad for a broadcast comedy, the 2012 Australian television series, Micro Nation, set on the fictional island of Pullamawang. I argue that by setting the series within a fictional micronational environment, the creators were able to develop a distinct type of situation for the comedy, embedding the theme of relative size and isolation as a key aspect of the show’s content and utilising unusual production and broadcast techniques. The article’s analysis draws on literature from Television and Broadcast Studies, Island Studies and Genre Studies and reflects on the media representation of micronations more generally.
- Sark And Brecqhou: Space, Politics and Power
Brecqhou, politics, power, Sark, spaceSark is a British Crown Dependency that could be described as a type of micronation. It has been a fief of the Crown since the 16th century, and in the 21st Century instituted a form of democratic government. While not part of the UK, nor a sovereign state in its own right, Sark is a self-governing territory within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and has substantial political autonomy, with its own legislature and judicial system. Sark’s political context comprises a binary existence as a jurisdiction spanning two populated islands: Sark and Brecqhou. This inter-island setting is complicated by Brecqhou having a special relationship with some privileges within the Fief of Sark, and offers a further level of quasi-micronationalism. This article discusses the history of Sark’s and Brecqhou’s inter- island relations. In the context of examining this island binary and the background to the contested ownership of Brecqhou and challenges to Sark’s political system, emphasis is placed on reframing the islands’ intertwined history and locality in connection with notions of space, politics and power. There have been various disputes over Sark and Brecqhou for many centuries, and in recent years the current owners of Brecqhou have argued that the island does not fall under Sark’s jurisdiction. This article shows that Sark exists in several ways within different island groupings and political relationships, and argues that closer analysis of this island context contributes both a case study of inter- island relations to Island Studies, and more broadly to re-thinking the political geography of islands in the context of spatial and power relationships.
- Brecqhou's Autonomy: A Response to Henry Johnson’s ‘Sark and Brecqhou: Space, Politics and Power’ (2014)
Keywords
Brecqhou, Sark, Barclay Brothers
- The Sark/Brecqhou Dyad: Jurisdictional Geographies and Contested Histories
Sark, Brecqhou, politics, power, spaceOver the past few decades, the islands of Sark and Brecqhou have featured in much media and legal discourse. Such factors as jurisdictional contestation, tension and criticism have arisen either between the owners of the private island of Brecqhou and the jurisdiction in which it is located, or as a result of other factors that have an association with Brecqhou on the larger island of Sark. As a type of microstate with a contested history and distinct traditional ways of life, the jurisdictional geographies in the Sark/Brecqhou dyad are of particular interest to the field of Island Studies. I use the term ‘Sark/Brecqhou dyad’ as a way of emphasising the distinct physical, political and social binaries that exist between the islands of Sark and Brecqhou. It is argued that key to understanding some of the points of contestation within and between this island dyad is a comprehension of some of the ways jurisdictional geographies and contested histories have been (re)interpreted. This article is an extension of my earlier article on the subject (Johnson 2014), and one that offers clarification, or one interpretation, of several significant points that help in comprehending this particular case of inter- and intra-island dynamics.
- [Correspondence Received] Sark and Breqhou (Continued)
- Operation Atlantis: A case-study in libertarian island micronationality
10.21463/shima.10.2.05
Operation Atlantis, micronations, seasteading, libertarianismThis article discusses Operation Atlantis, a project by a millionaire pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Werner K. Stiefel, to build a libertarian micronation off the coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It reviews the history and motivations behind Operation Atlantis and discusses how it relates to contemporary libertarian new-nation ventures. Operation Atlantis developed in parallel to ‘back-to-the-land’ communities, which used small-scale technology to return to a ‘natural’ state through simplicity and self-sufficiency. But the main influence on Stiefel’s project was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957), a novel inscribed with her Objectivist philosophy that tells the story of a group of millionaire industrialists who find refuge in a hidden community, Galt’s Gulch, also referred to as Atlantis. Interestingly, in recent years, a number of new offshore micronational projects sharing common influences and purposes and, in their own way, reviving the legacy of Operation Atlantis, have been launched in the United States. The Seasteading Institute is a non-profit working to build floating island nations. Designed as a ‘post-political’ manufactured space, Stiefel’s Operation Atlantis and seasteading borrow aspects of the cruise ship. To better understand the motivations behind Operation Atlantis and similar projects and to situate them within Island Studies, it is helpful to adopt Hayward’s concept of aquapelagos and uncover the disconnection between libertarian offshore micronations and the aquatic environment they intend to occupy.
- Secessionism, Submergence and Site-Responsive Art: The Embassy of the Commonwealth of New Bayswater at the 1st Fremantle Biennale
10.21463/shima.12.1.14
Secession, Micronationalism, Site-Responsive Art, Submergence, Western Australia, New Bayswater, Rottnest IslandAssertions of territorial and, particularly, micronational secession have often been highly performative and/or rhetorical. In this regard, they closely parallel aspects of conceptual, performance and installation art practice. It is unsurprising then that a number of prominent micronations have been formed by artists in response to local issues and/or as components of broader artistic projects. The Embassy of the Commonwealth of New Bayswater, created by Perth artist Jessee Lee Johns for the inaugural Fremantle Biennale in 2017, is a prime example of site-responsive art’s ability to provide illuminating representations of key issues in local discourse. The installation merits sustained consideration in this journal due to its intersection with recent debates concerning micronationality in the form of its wry engagement with aspects of Western Australian secessionist politics. Its other significant aspect is its address to issues of sea level rise, encroachment and submergence – a phenomenon whose impacts are likely to over-ride the viability of many low-lying territories let alone any secessionist pretensions individuals or communities inhabiting them may have.
- The Royal Republic of Ladonia: A Micronation built of Driftwood, Concrete and Bytes
10.21463/shima.13.1.10
Aislamiento, Sweden, Micronationalism, Micronations, Post-Nation, Third PlacesThe Royal Republic of Ladonia, the brainchild of artist Lars Vilks, is a micronation that advocates freedom of expression, supporting art and creativity. This article outlines Ladonia as the physical territory claimed in the Kullaberg peninsula in Sweden and the online community, where the government, nobles, and citizens gather. Ladonia coexists as both a physical territory and as a large and active online community, distinguishing itself from other micronations, which are either active online communities or claim small physical territories. Using Ladonia as the context, this article extends the concept of aislamiento (insularity/islandness) to show how a micronation can have coexisting and interrelated states of aislamiento.
- Soundtracking a Micronation: Neurobash’s engagement with Ladonia
10.21463/shima.13.1.11
Ladonia, Neurobash, Lars Vilks, micronationalism, micronational culturesLadonia, conceived and helmed by artist Lars Vilks since its inception in 1996, operates as a physical and online micronation that is particularly concerned with freedom of artistic expression. While much of the creative activity undertaken in – and in association with – Ladonia has involved sculptural work, the micronation also appointed the electronic music ensemble Neurobash as its official band in 2006-2008. This article explores the ensemble’s motivation for engaging with Vilks and his Ladonia project, the musical work created by them in association with the micronation and their subsequent distancing from Vilks’s activities. In approaching these topics, the article produces a characterisation of one of the few sustained associations between a creative ensemble and a micronation and the opportunities and issues involved in this.
The following articles published in other journals also contribute to analyses of micronationality:
- The Rise of Non-territorial Sovereignties and Micronations
Globalization, state sovereignty, territory, micro-nation, panarchy, Multinational Corporations, supranational, neoliberal, neomarxist, neorealist, hyperglobalist, devolution, nation-stateThere is much debate as to whether globalization is changing the face of geographical boundaries or leaving the world void of state and sovereignty. As a result of globalization, the exclusive territorial power of the state has become challenged by the operations of powerful multinational corporations (MNCs). MNCs can now pressure states to cut their labor costs, reduce taxation and tariffs. Sovereignty, though remaining part of the system, has become located instead in a multiplicity of institutional domains – MNCs and supranationals. There are huge repercussions to this decoupling of territory and sovereign state, including states no longer being free to instigate their own policies. With the weakening of the state-sovereignty relationship, tensions have been created and insecurity has meant the rise of walls within walls — in the form of micronations and non-sovereign states - MNCs have grown in power, dominating the system. This paper critiques the insubstantial definitions of what constitutes a state, the effects of the reconstitution of state-sovereignty, the shift in the balance of power from states to MNCs and devolved, regional bodies, which has been a contributory factor to the rise of micro-nations.
- Veyshnoria: A Fake Country in the Midst of Real Information Warfare
10.5406/jamerfolk.131.522.0435
Humor, jokes, political participation, parodyAs a humorous response to the threat of the Russian occupation of Belarus during the joint military exercise of September 2017, civic activists created the fictional Republic of Veyshnoria. This meme soon obtained all the attributes of a micro-nation, including numerous virtual citizens, serving to critique the autocratic government of Belarus and creating a platform for alternative nation-building. Via humor and fake news, fictional Veyshnoria is becoming increasingly instrumental in the realm of information and ideological warfare.
- Wondrous geographies and historicity for state-building on Malaita, Solomon Islands
10.1080/20566093.2017.1351169
Wonder, historicity, anthropology of Christianity, sovereignty, state-building, Solomon IslandsContemporary anthropological debates over the political implications of the global explosion of Evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity frequently center on a ‘break with the past’ and reliance on the working of divine power. In this article, we intervene in this debate by exploring people’s wonder about new global geography and historicity and the ways in which this wonder is opening up a space for local state building by an Evangelical/Pentecostal movement on the island of Malaita, Solomon Islands. We present and discuss the origins of a particular theocratic impulse of this movement to show how the movement’s theology evokes and supports the institution of a form of governance. This challenges the widespread observation that Evangelical/Pentecostal believers are politically quiet.
- Sealand and the Architecture of the Sea: From Counter-Space to Counter-Culture
10.1080/20507828.2019.1608102
Sealand, architecture, counter-space, counter-culture, pirate radio, nomos, North Sea, colonialismFocusing on the small state of Sealand, a platform built off the English Essex coast to carry anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War, this article posits the North Sea as a particular geopolitical condition based on its status as a “state of exception.” The article formulates its reading by considering the architectural legacy of the pirates, privateers and hackers who have been the principle rulers of the terrain. Their spatial strategies are understood not only in terms of physical constructions that accommodate exceptional functions, but also as a conceptual apparatus that facilitates extraterritorial juridical practices. The spatio-juridical characteristics of the “architecture of the sea” are seen to offer new possibilities for ordering the distribution of goods, capital and information, and for alternative forms of living.
- Oecusse and the sultanate of occussi-ambeno: pranksterism, misrepresentation and micronationality
artistamps, Indonesia, micronation, misrepresentation, Occussi-Ambeno, Oecusse, Portugal, Timor, Timor LesteOccussi-Ambeno, a fictional sultanate initially conceived by Aotearoan/New Zealander anarchist artist Bruce Grenville in 1968 and represented and developed by him and others over the last fifty years, is notable as both an early example of a virtual micronation (i.e. a type that does not attempt to enact itself within the physical territory it claims) and as an entity affixed to an entire pre-existent territory (in the case of the Sultanate of OccussiAmbeno, that of Oecusse on the north-west coast of the island of Timor). The latter aspect is pertinent in that however imaginary the micronation is, its association with a region of a small state raises questions concerning the ethics of (mis)representation. This is particularly pertinent in the case of Oecusse, which was occupied by Indonesian forces in 1975 and had its distinct identity subsumed within the Indonesian state until Timor-Leste (and Oecusse as its exclave) successfully gained independence in 2002. Discussions in the article compare the anarchopranksterist impulse behind the creation of the Sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno and its manifestation in visual media – primarily through the design and production of ‘artistamps’ (faux postage stamps) – to related economic and socio-political contexts.
- Under the Mermaid Flag: Achzivland and the performance of micronationality on ancestral Palestinian land
10.1344/co20192772-89
Achzivland, Micronationality, Palestine, Israel, Mermaids, Peter PanThis article considers the relationship between symbolism, interpretation and grounded reality with regard to “Achzivland,” a small area on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean that was declared an independent micronation in 1972. The article commences by identifying the principal geo-political and military factors that created the terrain for the enactment of fantasy utopianism, namely the forced removal of the area’s Palestinian population in 1948 and the nature of Israeli occupation and management of the region since. Following this, the article shifts to address related symbolic/allusive elements, including the manner in which a flag featuring a mermaid has served as the symbol for a quasi-national territory whose founder — Eli Avivi — has been compared to the fictional character Peter Pan, and his fiefdom to J.M. Barrie’s fictional “Never Never Land”. Consideration of the interconnection of these (forceful and figurative) elements allows the discourse and rhetoric of Achzivland’s micronationality to be contextualised in terms of more concrete political struggles in the region.
- The Oz Artist as King: W.W. Denslow’s Bermuda Fairy Tale
The following 'Anomalous/Autonomous' theme issue of Transformations journal features articles on islands and micronationality: