Portal:Oceania
Portal maintenance status: (January 2019)
|
Introduction
Oceania (UK: /ˌoʊsiˈɑːniə,
listen), /-ˈɑːn-/) is a geographic region comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Spanning the eastern and western hemispheres, Oceania covers an area of 8,525,989 square kilometres (3,291,903 sq mi) and has a population of 40 million. Situated in the southeast of the Asia-Pacific region, Oceania, when compared to continental regions, is the smallest in land area and the second smallest in population after Antarctica.
The islands at the geographic extremes of Oceania are the Bonin Islands, a politically integral part of Japan; Hawaii, a state of the United States; Clipperton Island, a possession of France; the Juan Fernández Islands, belonging to Chile; and the Campbell Islands, belonging to New Zealand. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and human development index, to the much less developed economies that belong to countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Palau, Fiji and Tonga. The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, with Sydney being the largest city of both Oceania and Australia.
Selected general articles
- The Oceania Hockey Federation is the governing body for the sport of field hockey in Oceania. It organises the Oceania Cup. It is affiliated with the International Hockey Federation (FIH). Read more...
Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific Islands are the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Three major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean are Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.
Depending on the context, Pacific Islands may refer to countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, islands once or currently colonized, or Oceania. The indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific Islands are referred to as Pacific Islanders. Read more...
This is a list of films produced in the continent of Oceania by country or island of origin: Read more...- The Oceania National Olympic Committees (acronym: ONOC) is an international organisation that congregates the 17 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Oceania.
It often assembles with other continental NOCs in the form of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). Read more...
Women have been a vital part of history and culture in the geographic area known as Oceania today. Women in Oceania have diverse cultural identities which relate to the geography of the continent and the social structures of the people living there. Their evolution, culture and history coincide with the history of Oceania itself.
Today women from Oceania include women who are from sovereign states in the region, such as women from Australia, New Zealand, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Read more...- FIBA Oceania is a zone within FIBA (International Basketball Federation). It is one of FIBA's five continental confederations. FIBA Oceania is responsible for the organization and governance of the major international tournaments in Oceania. It has 22 FIBA Federations and is headquartered in Southport, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The current FIBA Oceania President is Burton Shipley from New Zealand.
Its prime events were the FIBA Oceania Championship for men and the FIBA Oceania Women's Championship. The men's championship, established in 1971, was dominated by Australia. Yet, on some occasions, New Zealand defeated its rival, which was first accomplished in 1978. Australia was even more dominant in the women's tournament, first held in 1974; the Opals won all but one of its editions, with New Zealand winning only the 1993 edition. Both Oceania Championships held their last editions in 2015. Since then, FIBA Oceania and FIBA Asia national teams compete for a single championship for each sex—the men's FIBA Asia Cup and the FIBA Women's Asia Cup. Read more... - Oceania Rugby, previously known as the Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU), is the regional governing body for rugby union in Oceania. It was founded in 2000 to represent the interests of Oceania rugby within World Rugby, the international governing body. It presently encompasses fourteen full members and two associate members. Read more...
- Although the military history of Oceania probably goes back thousands of years to the first human settlement in the region, little is known about war in Oceania until the arrival of Europeans. The introduction of firearms transformed conflict in the region; in some cases helping to unify regions and in others sparking large-scale tribal and civil wars. Force and the threat of force played a role in the annexation of most of Oceania to various European and American powers, but only in Australia and New Zealand did wars of conquest occur. Western Oceania was a major site of conflict in World War II as the Japanese Empire sought to expand southwards. Since 1945 the region has been mostly at peace, although Melanesia has suffered from Indonesian expansionism in some areas and civil wars and coups in others. The Australian Defence Force is by far the largest military force in Oceania. Read more...
European exploration and settlement of Oceania began in the 16th century, starting with Portuguese settling the Moluccas and Spanish (Castilian) landings and shipwrecks in the Marianas Islands, east of the Philippines, followed by the Portuguese landing and settling temporarily (due to the monsoons) in the Tanimbar or the Aru Islands and in some of the Caroline Islands and Papua New Guinea, and several Spanish landings in the Caroline Islands and New Guinea. Subsequent rivalry between European colonial powers, trade opportunities and Christian missions drove further European exploration and eventual settlement. After the 17th century Dutch landings in New Zealand and Australia, but not settling these lands, the British became the dominant colonial power in the region, establishing settler colonies in what would become Australia and New Zealand, both of which now have majority European-descended populations. New Caledonia (Caldoche), Hawaii, French Polynesia, Norfolk Island and Guam also have significant European populations. Europeans remain a primary ethnic group in much of Oceania, both numerically and economically. Read more...
This is a list of films produced in the continent of Oceania by country or island of origin: Read more...
A World Heritage Site is a location that is listed by UNESCO as having outstanding cultural or natural value to the common heritage of humanity. The World Heritage Committee has designated 32 World Heritage Sites in Oceania. These are in 11 countries, with the majority of sites being located in Australia. The first three inscriptions from the region, the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and the Willandra Lakes, were in 1981—three years after the list's creation. The region contains the world's three largest sites: Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Papahānaumokuākea and the Great Barrier Reef. In addition, the Tasmanian Wilderness is one of only two sites that meet seven out of the ten criteria for World Heritage listing (Mount Tai in China being the other).
Each year, the World Heritage Committee may inscribe new sites on the list, or delist sites that no longer meet the criteria. Selection is based on ten criteria: six for cultural heritage (i–vi) and four for natural heritage (vii–x). Some sites, designated "mixed sites", represent both cultural and natural heritage. In Oceania there are 7 cultural, 19 natural and 5 mixed sites. UNESCO may also specify that a site is in danger, stating "conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List." In 2013, the Committee added East Rennell to the List of World Heritage in Danger because of the threat of logging activities to the site's outstanding universal value. Read more...
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.
The table below presents the latest Human Development Index (HDI) for countries in Asia and the Pacific as included in a United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report released on 14 September 2018 and based on data collected in 2017. Data for China does not include Taiwan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Read more...
This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania. Although it is mostly ocean and spans many continental plates, Oceania is often listed with the continents.
This list follows the boundaries of geopolitical Oceania, which includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The main continental landmass of Oceania is Australia. Read more...- Micronesia, which lies north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, includes the Mariana Islands in the northwest, the Caroline Islands in the center, the Marshall Islands to the west and the islands of Kiribati in the southeast.
Melanesia, to the southwest, includes New Guinea, the world's second largest island after Greenland and by far the largest of the Pacific islands. The other main Melanesian groups from north to south are the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands archipelago, Santa Cruz, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia. Read more... - Chronology of Oceania : The thematic eventsof 2010 in Oceania.
: 2008 in Oceania- 2009 in Oceania - 2010 in Oceania - 2011 in Oceania - 2012 in Oceania
: Read more...
The cuisines of Oceania include those found on Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and also cuisines from many other islands or island groups throughout Oceania. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Read more...- Pan-Oceanian is the proposed unity of Oceania-inhabiting people or a concept that collectively classifies several aspects of Oceanian society. The earlier usages of the term were largely concerned with issues surrounding entomology and other branches of zoology and its derivatives based in Oceania. For example, it categorized the taxonomy or botany of both the onshore and offshore of the Australasia and the nearby Asia-Pacific regions. In subsequent usages, the term is idealized in a manner that connotes a separate continent and the cultural and societal consequences that entails. For example, some Pacific Islanders have indicated that there is a prevalence of depictions of their community that seems to fall in line with stereotypes that were prevalent during the colonial and imperial era. Subsequently some of these individuals have pushed towards a more inclusive representation of filmmakers and film scholars. In culture, the term is used as an umbrella term in instances where there is a significant overlap in the issues facing Oceanians and in similarities they share, such as with the staples taro and yam. Read more...
- The Oceania Swimming Association is the continental governing body recognised by FINA, for the national governing bodies of swimming, open water swimming, diving, water polo, synchronised swimming and masters swimming in Oceania.
The body was established in January 1991 during the 1991 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. At the OSA Congress held in June 2008, Dennis Miller of Fiji was elected President of the organization. The body will next meet during the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Italy. Read more...
The South African Lions in action against Ireland during the 2008 Australian Football International Cup in Melbourne
Australian rules football in Africa is only played at an organised level in South Africa, although there are programs under development in Ghana, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and there have been attempts to introduce the sport in other African nations.
The first African born person to play Australian rules football professionally in the VFL/AFL was South African born Stephen Lawrence, while the first indigenous African born in Africa to play in the AFL was South African born Damien Cupido. Majak Daw, born in Sudan, was the first African to be born outside South Africa drafted into the AFL. Read more...- This is a list of articles holding galleries of maps of present-day countries and dependencies. The list includes all countries listed in the List of countries, the French overseas departments, the Spanish and Portuguese overseas regions and inhabited overseas dependencies.
- See List of extinct countries, empires, etc. and Former countries in Europe after 1815 for articles about countries that are no longer in existence.
- See List of countries for other articles and lists on countries.
- This is a list of television stations in Oceania:
- List of television stations in American Samoa
- List of television stations in Australia
- List of television stations in Borneo
- List of television stations in Fiji
- List of television stations in French Polynesia
- List of television stations in Java
- List of television stations in the Federated States of Micronesia
- List of television stations in New Zealand, incl. Cook Islands
- List of television stations in Papua New Guinea
- List of television stations in Samoa
- List of television stations in Tonga
- List of television stations in Western Papua and Irian
- The Oceania Athletics Association (OAA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Oceania. The OAA head office is located in Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Read more...
Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native people of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. Specifically it comprises the works of the two groups of people who settled the area, though during two different periods. They would in time however, come to interact and together reach even more remote islands. The area is often broken down into four separate regions: Polynesia, Micronesia, Australasia, and Melanesia. The former two share a common ancestral culture of the Lapita, while the latter two comprise settlers of the first wave of people into the area. All of the regions in later times would be greatly affected by western influence and colonization. In more recent times, the people of Oceania have found a greater appreciation of their region's artistic heritage.
The artistic creations of these people varies greatly throughout the cultures and regions. The subject matter typically carries themes of fertility or the supernatural. Art such as masks were used in religious ceremonies or social rituals. Petroglyphs, Tattooing, painting, wood carving, stone carving and textile work are other common art forms. Contemporary Pacific art is alive and well, encompassing traditional styles, symbols, and materials, but now imagined in a diversity of contemporary forms, revealing the complexity of geographic, cultural and individual interaction and history. Read more...- These are lists of South-Pacific, and Oceanian radio stations:
- List of radio stations in Guam
- List of radio stations in the Federated States of Micronesia
- List of radio stations in New Zealand
- List of radio stations in Palau
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football, consisting of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, and other Pacific Island countries. It promotes the game in Oceania and allows the member nations to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
OFC is predominantly made up of island nations where association football is not the most popular sport. Consequently, the OFC has little influence in the wider football world,[citation needed] either in terms of international competition or as a source of players for high-profile club competitions. In 2006, the OFC's largest and most successful nation, Australia, left to join the Asian Football Confederation, leaving New Zealand as the largest federation within the OFC. Read more...- Below is a list of all the Oceanian countries, in order of geographical area. Oceania's total geographical area is 8,525,989 km².
Note: Some of these countries are considered part of Asia as well, or have territory located somewhere other than Oceania. They are marked with an asterisk (*) and are ranked by the area of parts within Oceania only. Read more...
Oceania (UK: /ˌoʊsiˈɑːniə,ˌoʊʃi-, -ˈeɪn-/, US: /ˌoʊʃiˈæniə/ (
listen), /-ˈɑːn-/) is a geographic region comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Spanning the eastern and western hemispheres, Oceania covers an area of 8,525,989 square kilometres (3,291,903 sq mi) and has a population of 40 million. Situated in the southeast of the Asia-Pacific region, Oceania, when compared to continental regions, is the smallest in land area and the second smallest in population after Antarctica.
The islands at the geographic extremes of Oceania are the Bonin Islands, a politically integral part of Japan; Hawaii, a state of the United States; Clipperton Island, a possession of France; the Juan Fernández Islands, belonging to Chile; and the Campbell Islands, belonging to New Zealand. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and human development index, to the much less developed economies that belong to countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Palau, Fiji and Tonga. The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, with Sydney being the largest city of both Oceania and Australia. Read more...- Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries in Oceania are sorted by nominal GDP estimates based on 2017 data from The World Factbook by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The figures presented here do not take into account differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency. Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference to the standard of living of its population. Therefore, these figures should be used with caution. Read more... - == Table==Read more...
Oceanian population by country (top 8).
Australia (59.82%)Papua New Guinea (20.67%)New Zealand (11.51%)Fiji (2.18%)Solomon Islands (1.48%)Vanuatu (0.70%)New Caledonia (0.69%)French Polynesia (0.69%)Other (2.26%) - In the first half of the 19th century, small-scale slave raids took place across Polynesia to supply labor and sex workers for the whaling and sealing trades, with examples from both the westerly and easterly extremes of the Polynesian triangle.
By the 1860s this had grown to a larger scale operation with Peruvian slave raids in the South Sea Islands to collect labor for the guano industry. Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that the Rollers won the 2017 Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Basketball Championships, while the Gliders came in second?
Need help?
Do you have a question about Oceania that you can't find the answer to?
Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
Get involved
For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Oceania-related articles, see WikiProject Oceania.
Selected images
Bradshaw rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia
The ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, formerly the residence of the Hawaiian monarch, was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1978.
Dandenong Ranges in Victoria are popular among tourists.
New Guinea from 1884 to 1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea, Germany the north-eastern part, and Britain the south-eastern part.
Aoraki / Mount Cook, located on the South Island of New Zealand
Honolulu viewed from Diamond Head crater
Stone money transport to Yap Island in Micronesia (1880)
New Zealand troops land on Vella Lavella, in Solomon Islands
Elizabeth is Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of five Oceanian countries: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Puncak Jaya / Carstensz Pyramid, highest summit in Oceania
The Pacific robin inhabits the islands of the south western Pacific.
Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
On 28 June 2007, the Sydney Opera House became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Many Portuguese immigrants in Hawaii were Azorean or Madeiran.
Saione, the church of the King, a Free Wesleyan Church in Kolomotuʻa, Tonga. Due to missionary efforts undertaken by various organizations, particularly British and American societies, diverse Protestant denominations like Methodist, Congregationalist, Baptist, Anglican, Adventist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian or United Protestant churches were introduced throughout Oceania.
Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Central Australia
The Hobbiton Movie Set, located near Matamata, was used for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Fiji playing Wales at seven-a-side rugby
A fale on Manono Island
The Pacific Plate comprises most of Oceanian regions, excluding Australasia and western portion of Melanesia.
Government building in the capital Apia housing administrative ministerial offices.
Subcategories
Subtopics
Recognized content
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
Wikibooks
Books
Commons
Media
Wikinews
News
Wikiquote
Quotations
Wikisource
Texts
Wikiversity
Learning resources
Wiktionary
Definitions
Wikidata
Database
- What are portals?
- List of portals
