Portal:Oceania

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The Oceania Portal

An orthographic projection of Oceania

Oceania (UK: /ˌoʊsiˈɑːniə, ˌoʊʃi-, -ˈeɪn-/ OH-s(h)ee-AH-nee-ə, -⁠AY-, US: /ˌoʊʃiˈæniə, -ˈɑːn-/ ^ⓘ OH-shee-A(H)N-ee-ə) is a geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, at the centre of the water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) and a population of around 44.4 million as of 2022. When compared to the continents (which it is often compared to, not including Australia), Oceania is the smallest in land area and the second-least populated after Antarctica.

Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia, French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and Human Development Index, to the much less developed economies of Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western New Guinea, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, and Tonga. The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, and the largest city is Sydney. Puncak Jaya in Highland Papua, Indonesia, is the highest peak in Oceania at 4,884 m (16,024 ft).

The arrival of European settlers in subsequent centuries resulted in a significant alteration in the social and political landscape of Oceania. The Pacific theatre saw major action during the First World War with the Japanese occupying many German territories. During the Second World War, Allied powers the United States, Philippines (a U.S. Commonwealth at the time) and Australia fought against Axis power Japan across various locations in Oceania. (Full article...)

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Polynesia (UK: /ˌpɒlɪˈniːziə/ POL-in-EE-zee-ə, US: /-ˈniːʒə/ -⁠EE-zhə) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in common, including language relatedness, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs. In centuries past, they had a strong shared tradition of sailing and using stars to navigate at night.

The term Polynésie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses, who originally applied it to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a narrower definition during a lecture at the Société de Géographie of Paris. By tradition, the islands located in the southern Pacific have also often been called the South Sea Islands, and their inhabitants have been called South Sea Islanders. The Hawaiian Islands have often been considered to be part of the South Sea Islands because of their relative proximity to the southern Pacific islands, even though they are in fact located in the North Pacific. Another term in use, which avoids this inconsistency, is "the Polynesian Triangle" (from the shape created by the layout of the islands in the Pacific Ocean). This term makes clear that the grouping includes the Hawaiian Islands, which are located at the northern vertex of the referenced "triangle". (Full article...)

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The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) (roughly /pɑːpɑːˈhɑːnaʊmoʊkuˌɑːkeɪ.ə/) is a World Heritage listed U.S. National Monument encompassing 583,000 square miles (1,510,000 km²) of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was created in June 2006 with 140,000 square miles (360,000 km²) and expanded in August 2016 by moving its border to the limit of the exclusive economic zone, making it one of the world's largest protected areas. It is internationally known for its cultural and natural values as follows:

The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons.

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The following are images from various Oceania-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Manila Galleon in the Marianas and Carolinas, c. 1590 Boxer Codex (from Micronesia)
Image 2Polynesians with outrigger canoes at Waikiki Beach, Oahu Island, early 20th century (from Polynesia)
Image 3Tarawa Atoll (from Micronesia)
Image 4Chronological dispersal of Austronesian peoples across the Indo-Pacific (from Micronesia)
Image 5Mokoliʻi Isle near Oahu, Hawaii (from Polynesia)
Image 6Outline of sovereign (dark orange) and dependent islands (bright orange) (from Micronesia)
Image 7Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui (from Polynesia)
Image 8Cinder plain of Mount Yasur in Vanuatu (from Melanesia)
Image 9A common fishing canoe va'a with outrigger in Savaiʻi island, Samoa, 2009 (from Polynesia)
Image 10Outline of sovereign (dark orange) and dependent islands (bright orange) (from Polynesia)
Image 11Canoe carving on Nanumea atoll, Tuvalu (from Polynesia)
Image 12New Caledonia (from Melanesia)
Image 13Spinner dolphins (from Micronesia)
Image 14Kili Island is one of the smallest islands in the Marshall Islands. (from Micronesia)
Image 15Mount Tavurvur in Papua New Guinea (from Melanesia)
Image 16A depiction of a royal heiau (Hawaiian temple) at Kealakekua Bay, c. 1816 (from Polynesia)
Image 17Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle. (from Polynesia)
Image 18Melanesia is one of three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands, along with Micronesia and Polynesia. (from Melanesia)
Image 19Map of Melanesia, showing its location within Oceania (from Melanesia)
Image 20The arrival of Abel Tasman in Tongatapu, 1643; drawing by Isaack Gilsemans (from Polynesia)
Image 21German trading station at Jaluit Atoll with a Marshallese korkor outrigger canoe in the foreground (from Micronesia)
Image 22Australia's concept of Australasia, which includes Australia, New Zealand and, in this case, Melanesia (from Australasia)
Image 23Aerial view of Solomon Islands (from Melanesia)
Image 24Chamorro people in 1915 (from Micronesia)
Image 25Grinding stones discovered from archaeology in Samoa (from Polynesia)
Image 26Outline of sovereign (dark orange) and dependent islands (bright orange) (from Melanesia)
Image 27Languages of Micronesia. (from Micronesia)
Image 28Micronesia is one of three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands, along with Melanesia and Polynesia. (from Micronesia)
Image 29Mount Marpi in Saipan. (from Micronesia)
Image 30Köppen-Geiger climate classification map of Melanesia (from Melanesia)
Image 31Painting of Tahitian Women on the Beach by Paul Gauguin—Musée d'Orsay (from Polynesia)
Image 32The Polynesian spread of colonization in the Pacific (from Polynesia)
Image 33Sailors of Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean, 1846 (from Melanesia)
Image 34Subregions (Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and Australasia), as well as sovereign and dependent islands of Oceania (from Micronesia)
Image 35On February 14, 1779, Capt. James Cook was killed on the island of Hawaii (from Polynesia)
Image 36German New Guinea before and after the German-Spanish treaty of 1899 (from Micronesia)
Image 37A Melanesian child from Vanuatu (from Melanesia)
Image 38Carving from the ridgepole of a Māori house, ca 1840 (from Polynesia)
Image 39Beach scenery at Laura, Majuro, Marshall Islands (from Micronesia)
Image 40Subregions (Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Australasia), as well as sovereign and dependent islands of Oceania (from Polynesia)
Image 41Polynesian (Hawaiian) navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, c. 1781 (from Polynesia)
Image 42Polynesia is one of three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands, along with Melanesia and Micronesia. (from Polynesia)
Image 43Chronological dispersal of Austronesian peoples across the Indo-Pacific (from Melanesia)
Image 44Māori war canoe drawn after James Cook's voyage to New Zealand. (from Polynesia)
Image 45Cook's Bay on Moorea, French Polynesia (from Polynesia)
Image 46Map showing the migration and expansion of the Austronesians which began at about 3000 BC from Taiwan. The Polynesian branch is shown in green. (from Polynesia)
Image 47Map from 1961 of the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, formerly Japan's South Seas Mandate. (from Micronesia)
Image 48A pan flute from Solomon Islands, 19th century (from Melanesia)
Image 49Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa from 1998 to 2021, who initiated the Polynesian Leaders Group in late 2011. (from Polynesia)
Image 50King Kamehameha I receiving the Russian naval expedition of Otto von Kotzebue. Drawing by Louis Choris in 1816. (from Polynesia)
Image 51An illustration of the Cross Spikes Club of the US Navy on Bikini Atoll, one of several Marshall Islands used for atomic bomb tests. (from Micronesia)
Image 52Image of the Castle Bravo nuclear test, detonated on 1 March 1954, at Bikini Atoll (from Micronesia)