Pacific Islanders

The Pacific Islanders (or Oceanic people or Oceanians) are the indigenous inhabitants of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. The Oceanic people arrived on the islands thousands of years ago. By the time the first Europeans arrived on the islands, the Pacific Islanders had their own culture, traditions, and forms of organization. The European settlement entirely changed the region. Now, most of the Pacific Islands represent a combination of Oceanic people traditions as well as European style and culture. In the early 19th century, the French navigator Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville classified the indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific islands into three main categories ­considering their ethnic background: Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians.

Polynesians inhabit the triangle of islands of the eastern Pacific. The region is bordered by the Hawaii Islands ...