Oceania
Oceania includes the regions of Australia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, as defined by anthropologists. Countries and territories include: Australia; Caroline Islands; Cook Islands; Easter Island; Fiji; French Polynesia; Guam; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Midway Islands; Nauru; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Niue; Norfolk Island; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Pitcairn; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Tonga; Tuvalu; Vanuatu; Wake Island; Wallis and Futuna Islands. There is a significant Area Beyond National Jurisdiction.
Oceania lies in the Pacific Ocean. which is the largest and deepest basin containing nearly half of the Earth's free water. Islands are abundant in the Pacific, especially in the southern and western portions; many are volcanoes, some still active. These islands make up Oceania. The tropical Pacific is the seat of the global climate cycle known as El Niño/La Niña. This affects the Oceania region because El Niño results in drought in the western Pacific, including Indonesia and Australia, and increased rainfall in the central and eastern Pacific, for instance at Christmas Island, the Galapagos Islands and Equador. La Niña is essentially the reverse. These climate cycles impact Pacific fisheries.
More information and images on Oceania provided by our National Geographic partner.
Oceania lies in the Pacific Ocean. which is the largest and deepest basin containing nearly half of the Earth's free water. Islands are abundant in the Pacific, especially in the southern and western portions; many are volcanoes, some still active. These islands make up Oceania. The tropical Pacific is the seat of the global climate cycle known as El Niño/La Niña. This affects the Oceania region because El Niño results in drought in the western Pacific, including Indonesia and Australia, and increased rainfall in the central and eastern Pacific, for instance at Christmas Island, the Galapagos Islands and Equador. La Niña is essentially the reverse. These climate cycles impact Pacific fisheries.
More information and images on Oceania provided by our National Geographic partner.
Pacific scholar Epeli Hau'ofa in his 1993 work 'Our Sea of Islands', wrote about the significance of the ocean to Pacific Islanders.
'Oceania' connotes a sea of islands with their inhabitants. The world of our ancestors was a large sea full of places to explore, to make their homes in, to breed generations of seafarers like themselves. People raised in this environment were at home with the sea. They played in it as soon as they could walk steadily, they worked in it, they fought on it. They developed great skills for navigating their waters, and the spirit to traverse even the few large gaps that separated their island groups.
A New Oceania: Rediscovering our sea of islands, 1993, eds. Eric Waddell, Vijay Naidu and Epeli Hau'ofa, Suva, p 8.
'Oceania' connotes a sea of islands with their inhabitants. The world of our ancestors was a large sea full of places to explore, to make their homes in, to breed generations of seafarers like themselves. People raised in this environment were at home with the sea. They played in it as soon as they could walk steadily, they worked in it, they fought on it. They developed great skills for navigating their waters, and the spirit to traverse even the few large gaps that separated their island groups.
A New Oceania: Rediscovering our sea of islands, 1993, eds. Eric Waddell, Vijay Naidu and Epeli Hau'ofa, Suva, p 8.