Who Owns the Ground

31 records, and the series the register found rather than planned. Writing fifty cards through one sensor produced a ladder of tenure that nobody set out to build, and it turned out to be the most useful thing the collection had to say.

The rungs, in the order they were discovered. Fifty-six freeholders each holding one equal share, with the hotel a tenant among owners — Jumby Bay. A family trust holding an atoll, a conservation charity as its steward and a hotel company leasing one islet of twelve — The Brando. A princely family whose state no longer exists, with an operator working under them — Ananda. A sovereign wealth fund — Pitrizza and Romazzino. A state investment arm — The Datai. One man holding ninety-eight per cent of an inhabited island of ninety thousand acres — Lanai. A Maldivian company that has owned its island since 1973 and never sold — Baros.

Two rungs run the other way. Bawah and Song Saa were bought to stop something happening on them — dynamite fishing in one case, reef decline in the other — and the hotel was added afterwards to pay for it. The order of events is reversed and the register records it as such.

The series is not a ranking. A freehold is not better than a lease and a private owner is not better than a trust; they are different answers, and the collection's only claim is that the answer should be stated rather than assumed.