The island has become arguably one of the most emblematic figures of the Anthropocene. It is regularly invoked as exemplary of the changing stakes of our planet. This generates a crucially important role for island studies scholars; to explore, question, but now perhaps also trouble, some fundamental debates about islands in the Anthropocene. This paper picks up a particularly recurrent theme for island scholarship in recent decades—relationality and islands—and reorientates this within the stakes of the Anthropocene; discussing some implications for island studies, island ontology and resilience ethics.