Oceania

Abstract

Oceania is an area of approximately an eighth to a quarter of the earth’s surface, groups of islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hardly the rich Pacific Rim, these are only island territories or new island nations, some very mountainous archipelagos (Papua-New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu) and some coral outcroppings, flat as a pancake (Tonga). There are three basic divisions here. Micronesia (Guam, Truk, and a series of Federated States), a vast northern hemisphere territory which has almost always been under the heel of someone else’s forceful rule — Polynesia, a collection of ocean voyagers and powerful women with a fierce amount of pride (Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Samoas, Tuvalu, Easter Island, and so on); and Melanesia, a large group of very dark, religious, and physical people (PNG, the Solomons, Vanuatu, and Fiji). Wherever they are from, all these people demonstrate an intense loyalty to their own, particular home island. For example, a person from the northernmost island of the Fijian archipelago would be likely to consider him- or herself a Rotuman, more than a Fijian. Or, if one is from Rarotonga, the southernmost and most populous of the Cook Islands, such a person would probably think of him- or herself as a Rarotongan first and a Cook Island Maori second.