Pacific Islander
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Pacific Islander (or Pacific Person, pl: Pacific People, also called Oceanic[s]), is a geographic term to describe the inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.[1][2] According the the Encyclopaedia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:
Polynesia: The islands scattered across a triangle covering the east-central region of the Pacific Ocean. The triangle is bounded by the Hawaiian islands in the north, New Zealand in the west, and Easter Island in the east. The rest of Polynesia comprises Samoa (American Samoa and Western Samoa), the Cook Islands, French Polynesia (Tahiti and The Society Islands, Marquesa Islands, Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago), Niue Island, Tokelau and Tuvalu, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Pitcairn Island.
Melanesia: The island of New Guinea, the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagos, the Admiralty Islands, and Bougainville Island (which make up the independent state of Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, the Santa Cruz Islands (part of the Solomon Islands), New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), Fiji, Norfolk Island, and various smaller islands.
Micronesia: The islands of Kiribati, Guam, Nauru, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia (Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrate, all in the Caroline Islands).
Local usage in New Zealand uses the term to distinguish those who have emigrated from one of these areas in modern times from the indigenous New Zealand Māori (who are also Polynesian but arrived in New Zealand many centuries earlier), and from other ethnic groups. A stated reason for making the ethnic distinction is that the Pacific peoples suffer from socio-economic disadvantages as a group and benefit from culturally targeted social and health assistance.
In the United States, the geographic location of "Pacific Islander" is the same, but is generally understood as a reference to indigenous natives of Hawaii. In Australia the term "Pacific Islander" has been extended to include those from New Zealand. The category excludes people who trace to non-Pacific Island origins (e.g., descendants of Chinese or European colonists) that may now reside on the islands. It also excludes New Zealanders, (except the Māori natives, who are Polynesian), as well as Australians and indigenous Australian Aborigines (except perhaps Torres Strait Islanders, who are generally not included under that designation). In the United Kingdom, the term "Pacific Islander" refers to people originating from the islands of the Pacific (excluding the larger islands of Australia and New Zealand - see Pacific Islander British).
Inhabitants of the following islands and regions are generally not considered to be Pacific Islanders: Russia's Kuril Islands, Alaska's Aleutian Islands, and the Taiwanese, Japanese, Philippines, and Indonesian islands which, although technically bordering edges of the Pacific Ocean, do not fall under the definition of "Pacific Islanders" because such islands are not actually located within the three regions of Oceania (Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia).
The definitions and differences between Asian and Pacific Islanders are also clearly defined:
"Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands , Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes "Asian Indian," "Chinese," "Filipino," "Korean," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," and "Other Asian.""
Pacific Islander. A native or inhabitant of any of the Polynesian, Micronesian, or Melanesian islands of Oceania. Some examples of the ethnic groups that would be considered Pacific Islanders are the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the Marianas, Samoans, Guamanian, Chamoru , Tahitians, Mariana Islander, and Chuukese.
References
- ^ Pacific islander on Encarta.
- ^ Pacific islander on Dictionary.com.
- ^ 1990 Census of Population and Housing Public Use Microdata Sample
- ^ University of Michigan. Census 1990: Ancestry Codes. August 27, 2007. [1]
