- “The three major peoples within the Pacific consist of Micronesians, Melanesians and Polynesians. These terms are derived from the Greek: Micronesia (small islands), Melanesia (black islands) and Polynesia (many islands).”
- “Of these, the world of Polynesia lies within the vast triangle stretching from Hawaii in the north, to New Zealand in the south and Easter island in the east. To the west of Polynesia lies Melanesia and to the north west, Micronesia.”
Source: The World of the Maori, D. M. Stafford, 1996, reprinted 2004.
History
- “It was about 50,000 years ago that people first reached the Pacific islands, arriving in New Guinea from Southeast Asia via Indonesia. These people … were halted in the northern Solomon Islands about 25,000 years ago, due to the lack of technology and skills necessary to cross the increasingly wide stretches of open ocean.”
- “Subsequent people … moved into the area from the west, mingling with the Papuans and eventually becoming the… group of people we conveniently group together as ‘Melanesians’. New Guinea and Solomons were the only inhabited islands in the Pacific for many thousands of years.”
- “The wider seas from the Solomons to Vanuatu were finally crossed in about 1500 BC.
- … People now known as the ‘Lapita’ finally developed the technology and skills to cross open seas and quickly expanded through New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.”
Source: Geert Cole, et al. South Pacific, Lonely Planet Publication, 2000.
History
- “The Lapitas’ descendants, the Polynesians of Samoa and Tonga, ‘paused’ there for about a thousand years, until more advanced ocean vessels and skills were developed. They crossed the longer ocean stretches to the east to the Society and Marquesas island groups (in modrn French Polynesia) some time around 200 BC.”
- “From there, voyaging canoes travelled southwest to Rarotonga and the southern Cook Islands, southeast to Rapa Nui (Easter Island; AD 300), north to Hawaii (AD 400) and southwest past Rarotonga to Aotearoa (New Zealand; AD 900).”
- “All but the furthest-flung islands of the Pacific were colonized by 200 BC.”
Source: Geert Cole, et al. South Pacific, Lonely Planet Publication, 2000.