“Us is all saints, but children matter less”: Mattering, belonging, and futures in a small island territory

Abstract

This article explores how children on St Helena Island navigate what it means to matter. Drawing on constructivist grounded theory and participatory World Café methods with children on the remote British Overseas Territory of St Helena, the study illuminates how young people articulate their sense of belonging, fairness, safety, and aspirations for the future within the constraints of a small island. Four categories were constructed: desiring equality and fairness, making space for children, keeping healthy and feeling safe, and migrating towards possibilities. Analysis suggested that children’s accounts across these domains were shaped by ongoing colonial legacies, conceptualised here as colonial scarring. Together, these categories informed the development of the concept of learning mattering, introduced in this study as the ongoing process through which children come to understand whether they are valued by others and able to contribute within relational, institutional, and structural contexts. Situating St Helena within broader debates on island childhoods and marginalisation, the article advances mattering as a critical construct for understanding children’s lives in remote, postcolonial, and internationally dependent contexts. Findings highlight both the agency and resilience of children, while underscoring the need for policies that meaningfully include children’s voices in shaping futures across island territories.