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 comprising 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 other continents, 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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Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) is an Independent Samoa-based medical school established in 2002 and operated through a public-private partnership between the Government of Samoa and e-Medical Education, LLC, a Florida-based medical education management company. Its hybrid curriculum of distance-learning preclinicals and face-to-face clinical rotations enrolls 333 students, as of March 2024, and 215 graduates are currently in residency/internship training or practicing medicine in numerous global locations, primarily Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Samoa, and the US. (Full article...)

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... that Michaela Foster, a New Zealand footballer playing in the 2023 World Cup, is known for her mana?

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

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