Introduction to the South Pacific

Abstract

The South Pacific region stretches 17,000km longitudinally from Australia and Papua New Guinea in the west to South America in the east, and 7,000km latitudinally from the equator to the Antarctic Ocean (60°S). In the distinctive marine environment of the South Pacific, the ocean is viewed by islanders as bringing vastly separated peoples together: hence the peculiar significance of the seas to the the Pacific peoples. In addition to the two “metropolitan” countries of Australia and New Zealand, there are nine states which attained full independence between 1962 and 1980: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western Samoa. Another two, Niue and the Cook Islands, are self-governing in free association with New Zealand, a status which circumscribes their freedom of manoeuvre in external relations.