View source for Polynesia

{{Short description|Subregion of Oceania}}
{{About|the wider region in the Pacific|the French collectivity|French Polynesia|the genus of moth|Polynesia (moth)|the point of land in the South Orkney Islands|Signy Island}}
[[File:Pacific Culture Areas (Philippines+Vanuatu Correction).svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Polynesia is one of three major cultural areas of the [[List of islands in the Pacific Ocean|Pacific Ocean islands]], along with [[Melanesia]] and [[Micronesia]].]]
[[File:Oceania UN Geoscheme - Map with   Zones.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Subregions ([[Melanesia]], [[Micronesia]], Polynesia, and [[Australasia]]), as well as sovereign and dependent islands of [[Oceania]]]]
[[File:Map OC-Polynesia.PNG|thumb|upright=1.35|Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the [[Polynesian Triangle]].]]
[[File:Mapa Polinesia.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Outline of sovereign (dark orange) and dependent islands (bright orange)]]

'''Polynesia'''{{efn|{{langx|to|Polinisia}}; {{langx|mi|Poronihia}}; {{langx|haw|Polenekia}}; {{langx|fj|Polinisia}}; {{langx|sm|Polenisia}}; {{langx|rar|Porinetia}}; {{langx|ty|Pōrīnetia}}; {{langx|tvl|Polenisia}}; {{langx|tkl|Polenihia}}; {{langx|fr|Polynésie}}; {{langx|es|Polinesia}}. From {{langx|grc|πολύς}} ({{transliteration|grc|polýs}}) "many" and {{lang|grc|νῆσος}} ({{transliteration|grc|nêsos}}) "island".}} ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|p|ɒ|l|ᵻ|ˈ|n|iː|z|i|ə|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Polynesia.wav}} {{respell|POL|in|EE|zee|ə}}, {{IPAc-en|US|-|ˈ|n|iː|ʒ|ə}} {{respell|-|EE|zhə}}) is a [[subregion]] of [[Oceania]], made up of more than 1,000 [[island]]s scattered over the central and southern [[Pacific Ocean]]. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called [[Polynesians]]. They have many things in common, including [[Polynesian languages|linguistic relations]], [[Polynesian culture|cultural practices]], and [[Tradition|traditional beliefs]].<ref name=trh/> In centuries past, they had a strong shared tradition of sailing and [[Polynesian navigation|using stars to navigate]] at night.<ref name="PIM1955-6">{{cite web| last =Holmes| first = Lowell Don | work= XXV(11) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Island Migrations (1): The Polynesian Navigators Followed a Unique Plan |date =1 June 1955|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-319422511/view?partId=nla.obj-319629151 | access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref><ref name="PIM1955-8">{{cite web| last =Holmes| first = Lowell Don | work= XXVI(1) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Island Migrations (2): Birds and Sea Currents Aided Canoe Navigators|date =1 August 1955|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-318911458/view?partId=nla.obj-318923632#page/n90/mode/1up| access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref>

The term {{lang|fr|Polynésie}} was first used in 1756 by the French writer [[Charles de Brosses]], who originally applied it to all the [[list of islands in the Pacific Ocean|islands of the Pacific]]. In 1831, [[Jules Dumont d'Urville]] proposed a narrower definition during a lecture at the [[Société de Géographie]] of Paris. By tradition, the islands located in the [[South Seas|southern Pacific]] have also often been called the '''South Sea Islands''',<ref>Russell, Michael (1849). ''Polynesia: A History of the South Sea Islands, including New Zealand''.</ref> and their inhabitants have been called [[South Sea Islanders]]. The [[Hawaiian Islands]] have often been considered to be part of the South Sea Islands because of their relative proximity to the southern Pacific islands, even though they are in fact located in the [[Pacific Ocean|North Pacific]]. Another term in use, which avoids this inconsistency, is "the [[Polynesian Triangle]]" (from the shape created by the layout of the islands in the Pacific Ocean). This term makes clear that the grouping includes the Hawaiian Islands, which are located at the northern [[Vertex (geometry)|vertex]] of the referenced "triangle".

==Geography==
===Geology===
[[File:Moorea baie cook.JPG|thumb|Cook's Bay on [[Moorea]], [[French Polynesia]]]]
[[File:Mokoliʻi Insel.jpg|thumb|Mokoliʻi Isle near [[Oahu]], [[Hawaii]]]]

Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over a very large portion of the mid- and southern [[Pacific Ocean]]. It comprises approximately {{convert|117000|to |118000|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} of land, of which more than {{convert|103000|sqmi|km2|order=flip|abbr=on}} are within [[New Zealand]]. The Hawaiian archipelago comprises about half the remainder.

Most Polynesian islands and [[archipelago]]s, including the [[Hawaiian Islands]] and [[Samoan Islands|Samoa]], are composed of volcanic islands built by [[hotspot (geology)|hotspots]] (volcanoes). The other land masses in Polynesia — [[New Zealand]], [[Norfolk Island]], and [[Ouvéa]], the Polynesian outlier near [[New Caledonia]] — are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of [[Zealandia]].<ref name=mortimer>{{cite journal |last1=Mortimer |first1=Nick |last2=Campbell |first2=Hamish J. |title=Zealandia: Earth's Hidden Continent |journal=GSA Today |volume=27 |year=2017 |pages=27–35 |url=https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/article/GSATG321A.1.htm |doi=10.1130/GSATG321A.1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217064642/https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/article/GSATG321A.1.htm |archive-date=17 February 2017}}</ref>

Zealandia is believed to have mostly sunk below sea level 23 million years ago, and recently partially resurfaced due to a change in the movements of the [[Pacific Plate]] in relation to the [[Indo-Australian Plate]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-sinking-of-moas-ark/YDUUTEL7ZFWBKYACAOEVLJ6LQ4/ |title=The sinking of Moa's Ark |publisher=New Zealand Herald |date=28 September 2007 |access-date=24 June 2022}}</ref> The Pacific plate had previously been subducted under the [[Australian Plate]]. When that changed, it had the effect of uplifting the portion of the continent that is modern-day New Zealand.

The convergent plate boundary that runs northwards from New Zealand's North Island is called the [[Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone]]. This [[subduction]] zone is associated with the volcanism that gave rise to the [[Kermadec Islands|Kermadec]] and [[Tonga]]n islands.

There is a [[transform fault]] that currently traverses New Zealand's South Island, known as the [[Alpine Fault]].

Zealandia's continental shelf has a total area of approximately {{convert|1400000|sqmi|km2|order=flip|abbr=on}}.

The oldest rocks in Polynesia are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old. The oldest Polynesian rocks outside Zealandia are to be found in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain and are 80 million years old.

===Geographical area===
Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the [[Polynesian Triangle]], although some islands inhabited by [[Polynesians]] are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of [[Hawaii]], [[New Zealand]], and [[Easter Island]]. The other main island groups located within the Polynesian Triangle are [[Samoa]], [[Tonga]], the [[Cook Islands]], [[Tuvalu]], [[Tokelau]], [[Niue]], [[Wallis and Futuna]], and [[French Polynesia]].

Also, small Polynesian settlements are in [[Papua New Guinea]], the [[Solomon Islands]], the [[Caroline Islands]], and [[Vanuatu]]. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this great triangle is [[Rotuma]], situated north of [[Fiji]]. The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits, but speak a non-[[Polynesian languages|Polynesian language]]. Some of the [[Lau Islands]] to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga. However, in essence, Polynesia remains a cultural term referring to one of the three parts of [[Oceania]] (the others being [[Melanesia]] and [[Micronesia]]).

===Island groups===
The following islands and island groups are either nations or overseas territories of former colonial powers. The residents are native Polynesians or contain archaeological evidence indicating Polynesian settlement in the past.{{efn|Islands that were uninhabited at contact but which have archaeological evidence of Polynesian settlement include Norfolk Island, Pitcairn, New Zealand's [[Kermadec Islands]] and some small islands near Hawaii.}} Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the general triangle that geographically defines the region.

==== Polynesian area ====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! style=width:9em | [[List of sovereign states|Country]] / [[Dependent territory|Territory]]
! Notes
|-
| {{flag|American Samoa}}
| [[Territories of the United States#Incorporated vs. unincorporated territories|Unincorporated]] and [[Territories of the United States#Organized vs. unorganized territories|unorganized territory]] of the [[United States]]; self-governing under the supervision of the [[Office of Insular Affairs]]
|-
| {{flag|Cook Islands}}
| [[Political status of the Cook Islands and Niue|State in free association]] with [[New Zealand]]
|-
| {{flag|Easter Island}}
| [[Provinces of Chile|Province and special territory]] of [[Chile]]
|-
| {{flag|French Polynesia}}
| [[Overseas country of France|Overseas country]] of [[France]]
|-
| {{flag|Hawaii}}
| [[U.S. state]]
|-
| {{flag|New Zealand}}
| [[Sovereign state]]
|-
| {{flag|Niue}}
| [[Political status of the Cook Islands and Niue|State in free association]] with [[New Zealand]]
|-
| {{flag|Norfolk Island}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Atholl |author1-link=Atholl Anderson |last2=White |first2=Peter |year=2001 |title=Prehistoric Settlement on Norfolk Island and its Oceanic Context |journal=Records of the Australian Museum |volume=27 |issue=Supplement 27 |pages=135–141 |doi=10.3853/j.0812-7387.27.2001.1348 |url=http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/17923/1348_complete.pdf |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093613/http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/17923/1348_complete.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>
| [[States and territories of Australia#External territories|External territory]] of [[Australia]]<ref name="ag">{{cite web|url=http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/TerritoriesofAustralia_NorfolkIsland_NorfolkIslandGovernanceandAdministration |title=Governance & Administration |publisher=Attorney-General's Department |date=28 February 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920094021/http://ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/TerritoriesofAustralia_NorfolkIsland_NorfolkIslandGovernanceandAdministration |archive-date=20 September 2010 }}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Pitcairn Islands}}
| [[British Overseas Territories|British Overseas Territory]]
|-
| {{flagicon|Rotuma}} [[Rotuma]]
| [[Fiji]]an [[local government in Fiji|dependency]]
|-
| {{flag|Samoa}}
| Sovereign state
|-
| {{flag|Tokelau}}
| [[Realm of New Zealand#Tokelau|Non-self-governing territory]] of [[New Zealand]]
|-
| {{flag|Tonga}}
| Sovereign state
|-
| {{flag|Tuvalu}}
| Sovereign state
|-
| {{flag|Wallis and Futuna|local}}
| [[Overseas collectivity]] of [[France]]
|}

The [[Line Islands]] and the [[Phoenix Islands]], most of which are parts of [[Kiribati]], had no permanent settlements until European colonization, but are often considered to be parts of the [[Polynesian Triangle]].

Polynesians once inhabited the [[Auckland Islands]], the [[Kermadec Islands]], and [[Norfolk Island]] in pre-colonial times, but these islands were uninhabited by the time European explorers arrived.

The oceanic islands to the east of Easter Island, such as [[Clipperton Island]], the [[Galápagos Islands]], and the [[Juan Fernández Islands]], were in the past formerly categorized on rare occasion as part of Polynesia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanley |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unz2v_HT5q0C&dq=%22galapagos%22+%22polynesia%22+%22oceania%22&pg=PA43 |title=South Pacific Handbook |date=1979 |publisher=Moon Publications |page=43 |isbn=9780918373298 |access-date=1 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Moncrieff |first1=Robert Hope |title=The World of To-day A Survey of the Lands and Peoples of the Globe as Seen in Travel and Commerce: Volume 4 |date=1907 |publisher=Oxford University |page=222 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPVaAAAAQAAJ&q=%22easter+island%22+%22clipperton+island%22+%22oceania%22 |access-date=28 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="class">{{cite web |last1=Udvardy |first1=Miklos D.F. |title=A Classification of the Biogeographical Provinces of the World |url=https://fnad.org/Documentos/A%20Classification%20of%20the%20Biogeographical%20Provinces%20of%20the%20World%20Miklos%20D.F.%20Udvardy.pdf |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=7 March 2022 |archive-date=4 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504205134/https://fnad.org/Documentos/A%20Classification%20of%20the%20Biogeographical%20Provinces%20of%20the%20World%20Miklos%20D.F.%20Udvardy.pdf}}</ref> No evidence of prehistoric contact with either Polynesians or the [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]] has been found.

====Outliers====
{{Main|Polynesian outlier}}

=====Melanesia=====
* [[Anuta]] (in [[Solomon Islands]])
* [[Bellona Island]] (in Solomon Islands)
* [[Emae]] (in Vanuatu)
* [[Fiji]] (excluding [[Rotuma]] and the [[Lau Islands]])
* [[Mele, Vanuatu|Mele]] (in [[Vanuatu]])
* [[Nuguria]] (in [[Papua New Guinea]])
* [[Nukumanu]] (in Papua New Guinea)
* [[Ontong Java]] (in Solomon Islands)
* [[Pileni]] (in Solomon Islands)
* [[Rennell Island|Rennell]] (in Solomon Islands)
* [[Sikaiana]] (in Solomon Islands)
* [[Takuu]] (in Papua New Guinea)
* [[Tikopia]] (in Solomon Islands)

=====Micronesia=====
* [[Kapingamarangi]] (in the [[Federated States of Micronesia]])
* [[Nukuoro]] (in the Federated States of Micronesia)
* [[Wake Island]] (a part of the [[United States Minor Outlying Islands]])

=====Sub-Antarctic islands=====
* [[Auckland Islands]] (the most southerly known evidence of Polynesian settlement)<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = O'Connor | first1 = Tom | year = 2004 | title = Polynesians in the Southern Ocean: Occupation of the Auckland Islands in Prehistory | journal = New Zealand Geographic | volume = 69 | pages = 6–8 }}</ref><ref>[[Atholl Anderson|Anderson, Atholl]] and O'Regan, Gerard R. (2000) "To the Final Shore: Prehistoric Colonisation of the Subantarctic Islands in South Polynesia", pp. 440–454 in ''Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen'' Canberra: Australian National University.</ref><ref>[[Atholl Anderson|Anderson, Atholl]] and O'Regan, Gerard R. (1999) "The Polynesian Archaeology of the Subantarctic Islands: An Initial Report on Enderby Island". Southern Margins Project Report. Dunedin: Ngai Tahu Development Report</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author-link=Atholl Anderson |last=Anderson |first=Atholl |title=Subpolar Settlement in South Polynesia |journal= Antiquity |year=2005|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00114930|volume =79 |issue =306 |pages= 791–800|s2cid=162770473 }}</ref>

==History{{anchor|History of the Polynesian people}}==
===Origins and expansion===
{{Main|Austronesian peoples}}
{{See also|Mariana Islands#History|Lapita culture}}

[[File:Polynesian Migration.svg|thumb|The Polynesian spread of colonization in the Pacific]]
[[File:AhuTongariki.jpg|thumb|[[Moai]] at Ahu Tongariki on [[Easter Island|Rapa Nui]]]]

The Polynesian people are considered, by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence, a subset of the sea-migrating [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian people]]. Tracing [[Polynesian languages]] places their [[prehistory|prehistoric]] origins in [[Island Melanesia]], [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], and ultimately, in [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples|Taiwan]].

Between about 3000 and 1000 BC, speakers of [[Austronesian languages]] spread from Taiwan into [[Maritime Southeast Asia]].<ref name="matrilineality2003">{{Cite journal|last1=Hage |first1=P. |last2=Marck |first2=J. |year=2003 |title=Matrilineality and Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=44 |issue=S5 |pages= S121|doi=10.1086/379272 |s2cid=224791767 }}</ref><ref name="Kayser, M. 2006"/><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1073/pnas.97.15.8225| pmid = 10899994| title = Polynesian origins: Insights from the Y chromosome |journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| volume = 97| issue = 15| pages = 8225–8228| year = 2000| last1 = Su | first1 = B.| last2 = Jin | first2 = L.| last3 = Underhill | first3 = P.| last4 = Martinson | first4 = J.| last5 = Saha | first5 = N.| last6 = McGarvey | first6 = S. T.| last7 = Shriver | first7 = M. D.| last8 = Chu | first8 = J.| last9 = Oefner | first9 = P.| last10 = Chakraborty | first10 = R.| last11 = Deka | first11 = R.| bibcode = 2000PNAS...97.8225S| pmc = 26928| doi-access = free}}</ref>

There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia. These are outlined well by Kayser ''et al.'' (2000)<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00734-X| pmid = 11069104| title = Melanesian origin of Polynesian Y chromosomes |journal = Current Biology | volume = 10| issue = 20| pages = 1237–46| year = 2000| last1 = Kayser | first1 = M. | last2 = Brauer | first2 = S. | last3 = Weiss | first3 = G. | last4 = Underhill | first4 = P. | last5 = Roewer | first5 = L. | last6 = Schiefenhövel | first6 = W. | last7 = Stoneking | first7 = M. | s2cid = 744958| doi-access = free | bibcode = 2000CBio...10.1237K}}</ref> and are as follows:
* Express Train model: A recent (c. 3000–1000 BC) expansion out of Taiwan, via the [[Philippines]] and eastern [[Indonesia]] and from the northwest ("[[Bird's Head Peninsula|Bird's Head]]") of [[New Guinea]], on to [[Island Melanesia]] by roughly 1400 BC, reaching western Polynesian islands around 900 BC followed by a roughly 1000 year "pause" before continued settlement in central and eastern Polynesia. This theory is supported by the majority of current genetic, [[Austronesian languages|linguistic]], and archaeological data.
* Entangled Bank model: Emphasizes the long history of Austronesian speakers' cultural and genetic interactions with indigenous Island Southeast Asians and Melanesians along the way to becoming the first Polynesians.
* Slow Boat model: Similar to the express-train model but with a longer hiatus in Melanesia along with admixture — genetically, culturally and linguistically — with the local population. This is supported by the Y-chromosome data of Kayser ''et al.'' (2000), which shows that all three [[haplotype]]s of Polynesian Y chromosomes can be traced back to Melanesia.<ref name="Kayser, M. 2006"/>

In the archaeological record, there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with some certainty. It is thought that by roughly 1400 BC,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kirch |first=P. V. |year=2000 |title=On the road of the wings: an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact |location=London |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520234611}} Quoted in Kayser, M.; ''et al.'' (2006).</ref> "[[Lapita culture|Lapita]] peoples", so-named after their pottery tradition, appeared in the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] of northwest [[Melanesia]]. This culture is seen as having adapted and evolved through time and space since its emergence "Out of [[Taiwan]]". They had given up rice production, for instance, which required [[paddy field]] agriculture unsuitable for small islands. However, they still cultivated other ancestral Austronesian staple [[cultigen]]s like ''[[Dioscorea]]'' yams and [[taro]] (the latter are still grown with smaller-scale paddy field technology), as well as adopting new ones like [[breadfruit]] and [[sweet potato]].

[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|upright=2|left|thumb|Map showing the migration and expansion of the [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesians]] which began at about 3000 BC from [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples|Taiwan]]. The Polynesian branch is shown in green.]]

The results of research at the Teouma Lapita site ([[Efate Island]], [[Vanuatu]]) and the Talasiu Lapita site (near [[Nuku'alofa]], [[Tonga]]) published in 2016 supports the Express Train model; although with the qualification that the migration bypassed [[New Guinea]] and [[Island Melanesia]]. The conclusion from research published in 2016 is that the initial population of those two sites appears to come directly from [[Taiwan]] or the northern [[Philippines]] and did not mix with the '[[Australo-Melanesian|Australo-Papuans]]' of [[New Guinea]] and the [[Solomon Islands]].<ref name="Nat16">{{cite journal |last= Pontus Skoglund |display-authors=etal |title= Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific |journal= Nature |date=27 October 2016 |volume=538 |issue=7626 |pages=510–513 |pmid=27698418 |pmc=5515717 |doi=10.1038/nature19844 |bibcode=2016Natur.538..510S}}</ref> The preliminary analysis of skulls found at the [[Teouma]] and Talasiu Lapita sites is that they lack Australian or Papuan affinities and instead have affinities to mainland Asian populations.<ref name="TT-Sup">{{cite journal | title=Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific – Supplementary Note 1: The Teouma site / Supplementary Note 2: The Talasiu site |journal=Nature |date=3 October 2016 |volume=538 |issue=7626 |pages=510–513 |doi=10.1038/nature19844 |pmid=27698418 |pmc=5515717 |last1=Skoglund |first1=Pontus |last2=Posth |first2=Cosimo |last3=Sirak |first3=Kendra |last4=Spriggs |first4=Matthew |last5=Valentin |first5=Frederique |last6=Bedford |first6=Stuart |last7=Clark |first7=Geoffrey R. |last8=Reepmeyer |first8=Christian |last9=Petchey |first9=Fiona |last10=Fernandes |first10=Daniel |last11=Fu |first11=Qiaomei |last12=Harney |first12=Eadaoin |last13=Lipson |first13=Mark |last14=Mallick |first14=Swapan |last15=Novak |first15=Mario |last16=Rohland |first16=Nadin |last17=Stewardson |first17=Kristin |last18=Abdullah |first18=Syafiq |last19=Cox |first19=Murray P. |last20=Friedlaender |first20=Françoise R. |last21=Friedlaender |first21=Jonathan S. |last22=Kivisild |first22=Toomas |last23=Koki |first23=George |last24=Kusuma |first24=Pradiptajati |last25=Merriwether |first25=D. Andrew |last26=Ricaut |first26=Francois-X. |last27=Wee |first27=Joseph T. S. |last28=Patterson |first28=Nick |last29=Krause |first29=Johannes |last30=Pinhasi |first30=Ron |bibcode=2016Natur.538..510S}}</ref>

A 2017 DNA analysis of modern Polynesians indicates that there has been intermarriage resulting in a mixed Austronesian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians (as with other modern Austronesians, with the exception of [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples|Taiwanese aborigines]]). Research at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites implies that the migration and intermarriage, which resulted in the mixed Austronesian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians,<ref name="Kayser, M. 2006"/> occurred after the first initial migration to Vanuatu and Tonga.<ref name="Nat16"/><ref name="IB-Dec16">{{cite web |title= First ancestry of Ni-Vanuatu is Asian: New DNA Discoveries recently published |date= December 2016 |publisher= Island Business |url= https://islandsbusiness.com/component/k2/item/1685-first-ancestry-of-ni-vanuatu-is-asian-new-dna-discoveries-recently-published |access-date= 11 January 2017 |archive-date= 30 July 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180730171015/https://islandsbusiness.com/component/k2/item/1685-first-ancestry-of-ni-vanuatu-is-asian-new-dna-discoveries-recently-published |url-status= dead }}</ref>

A complete [[human mitochondrial genetics|mtDNA]] and [[whole genome sequencing|genome-wide SNP]] comparison (Pugach ''et al.'', 2021) of the remains of early settlers of the [[Mariana Islands]] and early Lapita individuals from [[Vanuatu]] and [[Tonga]] also suggest that both migrations originated directly from the same ancient Austronesian source population from the [[Philippines]]. The complete absence of "Papuan" admixture in the early samples indicates that these early voyages bypassed eastern [[Indonesia]] and the rest of [[New Guinea]]. The authors have also suggested a possibility that the early Lapita Austronesians were direct descendants of the early colonists of the Marianas (which preceded them by about 150 years), which is also supported by pottery evidence.<ref name="Pugach">{{cite journal |last1=Pugach |first1=Irina |last2=Hübner |first2=Alexander |last3=Hung |first3=Hsiao-chun |last4=Meyer |first4=Matthias |last5=Carson |first5=Mike T. |last6=Stoneking |first6=Mark |title=Ancient DNA from Guam and the Peopling of the Pacific |date=2021 |journal= Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=118 |issue=1 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2022112118 |pmid=33443177 |pmc=7817125 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11822112P |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The most eastern site for Lapita archaeological remains recovered so far is at [[Mulifanua]] on [[Upolu]]. The Mulifanua site, where 4,288 pottery shards have been found and studied, has a "true" age of {{circa|1000 BC}} based on [[radiocarbon dating]] and is the oldest site yet discovered in Polynesia.<ref>{{Cite journal |first1=Roger C. |last1=Green |first2=Helen M. |last2=Leach  |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98,_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site,_Mulifanua,_Western_Samoa,_by_H._M._Leach,_p_319-330/p1?page=0&action=searchresult&target= |title=New Information for the Ferry Berth Site, Mulifanua, Western Samoa |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=98 |year=1989 |issue=3 |pages=319–329 |jstor=20706295 |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510004830/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_98_1989/Volume_98%2C_No._3/New_information_for_the_Ferry_Berth_site%2C_Mulifanua%2C_Western_Samoa%2C_by_H._M._Leach%2C_p_319-330/p1?page=0&action=searchresult&target= |archive-date=10 May 2011}}</ref> This is mirrored by a 2010 study also placing the beginning of the human archaeological sequences of Polynesia in [[Tonga]] at 900 BC.<ref name="burley128">{{Cite journal |first1=David V. |last1=Burley |first2=Andrew |last2=Barton |first3=William R. |last3=Dickinson |first4=Sean P. |last4=Connaughton |first5=Karine |last5=Taché  |year=2010 |title= Nukuleka as a Founder Colony for West Polynesian Settlement: New Insights from Recent Excavations |journal=Journal of Pacific Archaeology |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=128–144 |doi=10.70460/jpa.v1i2.26 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Within a mere three or four centuries, between 1300 and 900 BC, the Lapita [[archaeological culture]] spread 6,000&nbsp;km further to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until reaching as far as [[Fiji]], [[Tonga]], and [[Samoa]].<ref name="Belwood1">{{cite book |last1=Bellwood |first1=Peter |title=The Polynesians – Prehistory of an Island People |year= 1987 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |pages=45–65 |isbn=978-0500274507}}</ref> A cultural divide began to develop between Fiji to the west, and the distinctive Polynesian language and culture emerging on Tonga and Samoa to the east. Where there was once faint evidence of uniquely shared developments in Fijian and Polynesian speech, most of this is now called "borrowing" and is thought to have occurred in those and later years more than as a result of continuing unity of their earliest dialects on those far-flung lands. Contacts were mediated especially through the [[Tovata]] confederacy of Fiji. This is where most Fijian-Polynesian linguistic interactions occurred.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/images/diaporamas_colloque/Pawley.pdf |title=Why do Polynesian island groups have one language and Melanesian island groups have many? Patterns of interaction and diversification in the Austronesian colonization of Remote Oceania |last=Pawley |first=Andrew |date=2007 |page=25 |access-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609180125/https://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/images/diaporamas_colloque/Pawley.pdf |archive-date=2022-06-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p49471/pdf/161.pdf |title=Colonisation and culture change in the early prehistory of Fiji |last1=Clark |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Anderson |first2=Atholl |author2-link=Atholl Anderson |publisher=Terra Australis |pages=417–418 |access-date=4 September 2021}}</ref>

In the chronology of the exploration and first populating of Polynesia, there is a gap commonly referred to as the long pause between the first populating of [[Fiji]] ([[Melanesia]]), Western Polynesia of [[Tonga]] and [[Samoa]] among others and the settlement of the rest of the region. In general this gap is considered to have lasted roughly 1,000 years.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Finney|first=Ben|date=1977|title=Voyaging Canoes and the Settlement of Polynesia |journal=Science |volume=196 |issue=4296 |pages=1277–1285 |doi=10.1126/science.196.4296.1277 |jstor=1744728 |pmid=17831736 |bibcode=1977Sci...196.1277F |s2cid=2836072}}</ref> The cause of this gap in voyaging is contentious among archaeologists with a number of competing theories presented including climate shifts,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Finney|first=Ben R.|date=1985|title=Anomalous Westerlies, El Niño, and the Colonization of Polynesia |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.1525/aa.1985.87.1.02a00030 |jstor=677659 |issn=0002-7294 |doi-access=free}}</ref> the need for the development of new voyaging techniques,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Di Piazza |first1=Anne |last2=Di Piazza |first2=Philippe |last3=Pearthree |first3=Erik |date=2007-08-01 |title=Sailing virtual canoes across Oceania: revisiting island accessibility |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=34 |issue=8 |pages=1219–1225 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2006.10.013 |bibcode=2007JArSc..34.1219D |issn=0305-4403}}</ref> and cultural shifts.

After the long pause, dispersion of populations into central and eastern Polynesia began. Although the exact timing of when each island group was settled is debated, it is widely accepted that the island groups in the geographic center of the region (i.e. the [[Cook Islands]], [[Society Islands]], [[Marquesas Islands]], etc.) were settled initially between 1000 and 1150 AD,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wilmshurst|first1=J. M. |last2=Hunt |first2=T. L. |last3=Lipo |first3=C. P. |last4=Anderson |first4=A. J. |year=2010 |title=High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=108 |issue=5 |pages=1815–20 |bibcode=2011PNAS..108.1815W |doi=10.1073/pnas.1015876108 |pmc=3033267 |pmid=21187404 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Irwin |first=Geoffry |date=1990|title=Voyaging by Canoe and Computer: experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean |journal=Antiquity |volume=64 |issue=242 |pages=34–50 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00077280 |s2cid=164203366}}</ref> and ending with more far flung island groups such as [[Hawaiian Islands|Hawaii]], [[New Zealand]], and [[Easter Island]] settled between 1200 and 1300 AD.<ref name="huntlipo2006">{{Cite journal |last1=Hunt |first1=T. L. |last2=Lipo |first2=C. P. |year=2006 |title=Late Colonization of Easter Island |journal=Science |volume=311 |issue=5767 |pages=1603–1606 |bibcode=2006Sci...311.1603H |doi=10.1126/science.1121879 |pmid=16527931 |s2cid=41685107 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="huntlipo2011">{{Cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=Terry |title=The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island |last2=Lipo |first2=Carl |publisher=Free Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4391-5031-3}}</ref>

Tiny populations may have been involved in the initial settlement of individual islands;<ref name="burley128" /> although Professor Matisoo-Smith of the Otago study said that the founding Māori population of New Zealand must have been in the hundreds, much larger than previously thought.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/100455675/the-ancient-origins-of-new-zealanders |title= Who were the first humans to reach New Zealand (with map) |publisher= Stuff (Fairfax) |date=22 January 2018}}</ref> The Polynesian population experienced a [[founder effect]] and genetic drift.<ref name=Murray-McIntosh>{{cite journal |last1=Murray-McIntosh |first1=Rosalind P. |last2=Scrimshaw |first2=Brian J. |last3=Hatfield |first3=Peter J. |last4=Penny |first4=David |title=Testing migration patterns and estimating founding population size in Polynesia by using human mtDNA sequences |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=21 July 1998 |volume=95 |issue=15 |pages=9047–9052 |doi=10.1073/pnas.95.15.9047 |pmid=9671802 |pmc=21200 |bibcode=1998PNAS...95.9047M |bibcode-access=free |doi-access=free}}</ref> The Polynesian may be distinctively different both [[genotype|genotypically]] and [[phenotype|phenotypically]] from the parent population from which it is derived. This is due to new population being established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population which also causes a loss of genetic variation.<ref>{{cite journal |pmid=15280221 |pmc=1470966 |year=2004 |last1=Provine |first1=W. B. |author-link=Will Provine |title=Ernst Mayr: Genetics and speciation |journal=Genetics |volume=167 |issue=3 |pages=1041–6 |doi=10.1093/genetics/167.3.1041|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=6777243 |pmc=1214177 |doi-access=free |year=1980 |last1=Templeton |first1=A. R. |title=The theory of speciation via the founder principle |journal=Genetics |volume=94 |issue=4 |pages=1011–38 |doi=10.1093/genetics/94.4.1011}}</ref>

[[Atholl Anderson]] wrote that analysis of [[human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA, female) and [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y chromosome]] (male) concluded that the ancestors of Polynesian women were [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesians]] while those of Polynesian men were [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuans]]. Subsequently, it was found that 96% (or 93.8%)<ref name="Kayser, M. 2006">{{cite web |url=http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53ca9138e4b09ce5b336e6a8/t/53d3ba34e4b0dc5a2065db41/1406384692136/KayserStonekingMBE2006.pdf |doi=10.1093/molbev/msl093 |title=Melanesian and Asian Origins of Polynesians: MtDNA and y Chromosome Gradients Across the Pacific |year=2006 |last1=Kayser |first1=Manfred |last2=Brauer |first2=Silke |last3=Cordaux |first3=Richard |last4=Casto |first4=Amanda |last5=Lao |first5=Oscar |last6=Zhivotovsky |first6=Lev A. |last7=Moyse-Faurie |first7=Claire |last8=Rutledge |first8=Robb B. |last9=Schiefenhoevel |first9=Wulf |last10=Gil |first10=David |last11=Lin |first11=Alice A. |last12=Underhill |first12=Peter A. |last13=Oefner |first13=Peter J. |last14=Trent |first14=Ronald J. |last15=Stoneking |first15=Mark |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=23 |issue=11 |pages=2234–2244 |pmid=16923821 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220303060447/http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53ca9138e4b09ce5b336e6a8/t/53d3ba34e4b0dc5a2065db41/1406384692136/KayserStonekingMBE2006.pdf |archive-date=Mar 3, 2022}}</ref> of Polynesian mtDNA has an Asian origin, as does one-third of Polynesian Y chromosomes; the remaining two-thirds from New Guinea and nearby islands; this is consistent with matrilocal residence patterns.<ref name="Kayser, M. 2006"/> Polynesians existed from the intermixing of few ancient Austronesian-Melanesian founders, genetically they belong almost entirely to the Haplogroup B (mtDNA), which is the marker of Austronesian expansions. The high frequencies of mtDNA Haplogroup B in the Polynesians are the result of founder effect and represents the descendants of a few Austronesian females who intermixed with Papuan males.<ref name=Murray-McIntosh/><ref>Assessing Y-chromosome Variation in the South Pacific Using Newly Detected, By Krista Erin Latham [https://books.google.com/books?id=wSeSv6qWoroC&dq=very+few+successful+East+Asian+women+polynesian&pg=PA105] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713121627/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wSeSv6qWoroC&pg=PA105&dq=very+few+successful+East+Asian+women+polynesian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mIHbVKjqM8ndPeCEgbAM&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA|date=2015-07-13}}</ref>

A genomic analysis of modern populations in Polynesia, published in 2021,<ref name="GN2021">{{ cite journal|last1=Ioannidis |first1=A.G. |last2=Blanco-Portillo |first2=J. |last3=Sandoval |first3=K. |display-authors=etal |s2cid-access=free |title=Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks |year=2021 |volume=597 |issue=7877 |journal=Nature |pages=522–526 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03902-8 |pmid=34552258 |pmc=9710236 |bibcode=2021Natur.597..522I |s2cid=237608692}}</ref> provides a model of the direction and timing of Polynesian migrations from Samoa to the islands to the east. This model presents consistencies and inconsistencies with models of Polynesian migration that are based on archaeology and linguistic analysis.<ref name="PK2021">{{ cite journal|last=Kirch|first= Patrick V. |title= Modern Polynesian genomes offer clues to early eastward migrations|url= https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01719-z|year= 2021|volume= 597|issue= 7877|journal= Nature|pages=477–478 |doi= 10.1038/d41586-021-01719-z|pmid= 34552247 |bibcode= 2021Natur.597..477K |s2cid= 237606683 |url-access= subscription}}</ref> The 2021 genomic model presents a migration pathway from Samoa to the [[Cook Islands]] (Rarotonga), then to the [[Society Islands]] (Tōtaiete mā) in the 11th century AD, the western [[Austral Islands]] (Tuha'a Pae) and the [[Tuamotus|Tuāmotu Archipelago]] in the 12th century AD, with the migrant pathway branching to the north to the [[Marquesas]] (Te Henua 'Enana), to [[Raivavae]] in the south, and to the easternmost destination on [[Easter Island]] (Rapa Nui), which was settled in approximately 1200 AD via [[Mangareva]].<ref name="PK2021"/>

===Culture===
The Polynesians were [[matrilineality|matrilineal]] and [[matrilocal residence|matrilocal]] [[Stone Age]] societies upon their arrival in [[Tonga]], [[Samoa]] and the surrounding islands, after having spent at least some time in the Bismarck Archipelago. The modern Polynesians still show human genetic results of a Melanesian culture which allowed indigenous men, but not women, to "marry in" – useful evidence for matrilocality.<ref name="matrilineality2003"/><ref name="Kayser, M. 2006"/><ref name="autogenerated365">{{Cite journal|last= Hage |first= P. |year= 1998 |title= Was Proto Oceanic Society matrilineal?|jstor= 20706828 |journal= Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume= 107 |issue= 4 |pages= 365–379}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last= Marck |first= J. |year= 2008 |title= Proto Oceanic Society was matrilineal |journal= Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume= 117 |issue= 4 |pages= 345–382 |jstor= 20707458}}</ref>

Although matrilocality and matrilineality receded at some early time, Polynesians and most other Austronesian speakers in the Pacific Islands were and are still highly "matricentric" in their traditional jurisprudence.<ref name="autogenerated365"/> The Lapita pottery for which the general archaeological complex of the earliest "Oceanic" Austronesian speakers in the Pacific Islands are named also lapsed in Western Polynesia. Language, social life and [[material culture]] were very distinctly "Polynesian" by 1000 BC.

Early European observers detected [[theocracy|theocratic]] elements in traditional Polynesian government.<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Moerenhout
 |first1               = Jacques Antoine
 |translator-last1     = Borden
 |translator-first1    = Arthur R.
 |year                 = 1993
 |orig-date            = 1837
 |title                = Travels to the Islands of the Pacific Ocean
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=9ygxAQAAIAAJ
 |publication-place    = Lanham, Maryland
 |publisher            = University Press of America
 |page                 = 295
 |isbn                 = 9780819188984
 |access-date          = 20 March 2024
 |quote                = It was not rare, either, to see the priestly functions and the administrative united under one head in such a way as to give a government the character of a true theocracy, which always happened when a dead chief was replaced by a brother or near relative already invested with the priestly functions  [...] the grand priest was almost always a brother or near relative of his chief [...].
}}
</ref>

Linguistically, there are five sub-groups of the [[Polynesian languages|Polynesian language group]]. Each represents a region within Polynesia and the categorization of these language groups by Green in 1966 helped to confirm that Polynesian settlement generally took place from west to east. There is a very distinct "East Polynesian" subgroup with many shared innovations not seen in other Polynesian languages. The Marquesas dialects are perhaps the source of the oldest Hawaiian speech which is overlaid by Tahitian-variety speech, as Hawaiian oral histories would suggest. The earliest varieties of New Zealand Māori speech may have had multiple sources from around central Eastern Polynesia, as Māori oral histories would suggest.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Roger |date=1966 |title=Linguistic Subgrouping within Polynesia: The Implications for Prehistoric Settlement |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=6–38 |jstor=20704347 |issn=0032-4000}}</ref>

===Political history===

====Cook Islands====
{{See also|History of the Cook Islands}}

The Cook Islands are made up of 15 islands comprising the Northern and Southern groups. The islands are spread out across many kilometers of a vast ocean. The largest of these islands is called Rarotonga, which is also the political and economic capital of the nation.

The Cook Islands were formerly known as the Hervey Islands, but this name refers only to the Northern Groups. It is unknown when this name was changed to reflect the current name. It is thought that the Cook Islands were settled in two periods: the Tahitian Period, when the country was settled between 900 and 1300 AD, and the Maui Settlement, which occurred in 1600 AD, when a large contingent from Tahiti settled in Rarotonga, in the Takitumu district.

The first contact between Europeans and the native inhabitants of the Cook Islands took place in 1595 with the arrival of Spanish explorer [[Álvaro de Mendaña]] in [[Pukapuka]], who called it ''San Bernardo'' (Saint Bernard). A decade later, navigator [[Pedro Fernández de Quirós]] made the first European landing in the islands when he set foot on [[Rakahanga]] in 1606, calling it ''Gente Hermosa'' (Beautiful People).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ck/rakahang.htm|title=Rakahanga – Island of Beautiful People|publisher=www.ck}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/rarotonga-and-the-cook-islands/history#269027|title=History of Rarotonga & the Cook Islands: European explorers |publisher=Lonely Planet}}</ref>

Cook Islanders are ethnically Polynesians or Eastern Polynesia. They are culturally associated with Tahiti, Eastern Islands, New Zealand Māori and Hawaii.

====Fiji====
{{See also|History of Fiji|Seru Epenisa Cakobau|Fiji during the time of Cakobau}}

The [[Lau Islands]] were subject to periods of Tongan rulership and then Fijian control until their eventual conquest by Seru Epenisa Cakobau of the Kingdom of Fiji by 1871. In around 1855 a Tongan prince, [[Enele Ma'afu]], proclaimed the Lau islands as his kingdom, and took the title [[Tui Lau]].

Fiji had been ruled by numerous divided chieftains until Cakobau unified the landmass. The Lapita culture, the ancestors of the Polynesians, existed in Fiji from about 1000 BC until they were displaced by the Melanesians about a thousand years later. (Both Samoans and subsequent Polynesian cultures adopted Melanesian painting and tattoo methods.)

In 1873, Cakobau ceded a Fiji heavily indebted to foreign creditors to the United Kingdom. It became independent on 10 October 1970 and a republic on 28 September 1987.

Fiji is classified as Melanesian and (less commonly) Polynesian.

====Hawaii====
{{Main|History of Hawaii|Kingdom of Hawaii}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2024}}

<gallery mode=packed heights=135>
File:John Cleveley the Younger, Views of the South Seas (No. 4 of 4).jpg|On February 14, 1779, Capt. [[James Cook]] was killed on the island of Hawaii.
File:Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine (after Louis Choris), Temple du Roi dans la baie Tiritatéa (c. 1816, published 1822).jpg |A depiction of a royal ''[[heiau]]'' (Hawaiian temple) at [[Kealakekua Bay]], c. 1816
File:Entrevue de l'expedition de M. Kotzebue avec le roi Tammeamea dans l'ile d'Ovayhi, Iles Sandwich (detailed).jpg|King [[Kamehameha I]] receiving the Russian naval expedition of [[Otto von Kotzebue]]. Drawing by [[Louis Choris]] in 1816.
File:Two natives with outrigger canoes at shoreline, Honolulu, Hawaii.jpg|Polynesians with [[outrigger boat|outrigger canoes]] at [[Waikiki|Waikiki Beach]], [[Oahu|Oahu Island]], early 20th century
</gallery>

====Kiribati====
{{Main|History of Kiribati}}
{{Expand section|date=November 2024}}

====Marquesas Islands====
{{Main|History of the Marquesas}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2024}}

====New Zealand====
{{Main|Māori people}}
[[File:An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain (14796336363).jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Māori [[Waka (canoe)|war canoe]] (waka) drawn after [[James Cook]]'s voyage to New Zealand.<ref>Hawkesworth J, Wallis JS, Byron J, Carteret P, Cook J, Banks J (1773) [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=A781.03&viewtype=text ''An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere''], vol 1, chap 10. W. Strahan and T. Cadell in the Strand.</ref>]]

Beginning in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Polynesians began to migrate in waves to [[New Zealand]] via their [[Māori migration canoes|canoes]], settling on both the [[North Island|North]] and [[South Island|South]] islands as well as the [[Chatham Islands]]. Over the course of several centuries, the Polynesian settlers formed distinct cultures that became known as the [[Māori people|Māori]] on the New Zealand mainland, while those who settled in the [[Chatham Islands]] became the [[Moriori people]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roberton |first=J.B.W. |year=1956 |title=Genealogies as a basis for Maori chronology |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=45–54 |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_65_1956/Volume_65,_No._1/Genealogies_as_a_basis_for_Maori_chronology,_by_J._B._W._Roberton,_p_45%9654/p1 |access-date=2021-10-06 |archive-date=2020-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310165840/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_65_1956/Volume_65%2C_No._1/Genealogies_as_a_basis_for_Maori_chronology%2C_by_J._B._W._Roberton%2C_p_45%EF%BF%BD54/p1}}</ref> Beginning the 17th century, the arrival of Europeans to New Zealand drastically impacted Māori culture. [[Pākehā settlers|Settlers from Europe]] (known as "{{lang|mi|[[Pākehā]]}}") began to colonize New Zealand in the 19th century, leading to tension with the indigenous Māori.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Christina A. |date=June 1997 |title=A dangerous people whose only occupation is war: Maori and Pakeha in 19th century New Zealand |journal=Journal of Pacific History |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=109–119|doi=10.1080/00223349708572831}}</ref> On October 28, 1835, a group of Māori tribesmen issued a [[Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand|declaration of independence]] (drafted by Scottish businessman [[James Busby]]) as the "[[United Tribes of New Zealand]]", in order to resist potential efforts at colonizing New Zealand by the [[French colonial empire|French]] and prevent [[merchant ship]]s and their cargo which belonged to Māori merchants from being seized at foreign ports. The new state received recognition from the [[The Crown|British Crown]] in 1836.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/declaration-of-independence-taming-the-frontier |title=Taming the frontier Page 4 – Declaration of Independence |date=23 September 2016 |website=NZ History |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |access-date=20 August 2017}}</ref>

In 1840 [[Royal Navy]] officer [[William Hobson]] and several Māori chiefs signed the [[Treaty of Waitangi]], which transformed New Zealand into a [[colony]] of the [[British Empire]] and granting all Māori the status of British subjects.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Orange |first1=Claudia |title=Treaty of Waitangi – Creating the Treaty of Waitangi |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi/page-1 |encyclopedia=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=7 June 2018 |date=20 June 2012}}</ref> However, tensions between {{lang|mi|Pākehā}} settlers and the Māori over settler encroachment on Māori lands and disputes over land sales led to the [[New Zealand Wars]] (1845–1872) between the [[Colony of New Zealand|colonial government]] and the Māori. In response to the conflict, the colonial government initiated a series of [[New Zealand land confiscations|land confiscations]] from the Māori.<ref>[[Keith Sinclair]], ''A History of New Zealand'', Penguin, 2000, page 146 {{ISBN|0-14-029875-4}}</ref> This social upheaval, combined with epidemics of infectious diseases from Europe, devastated both the Māori population and their social standing in New Zealand. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the Māori population began to recover, and efforts were made to redress social, economic, political and economic issues facing the Māori in wider New Zealand society. Beginning in the 1960s, a [[Māori protest movement|protest movement]] emerged seeking redress for [[Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements|historical grievances]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=R. J. |title=The Genesis of Maori Activism |date=1984 |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=93 |issue=3 |pages=267–281 |jstor=20705873 |issn=0032-4000}}</ref> In the [[2013 New Zealand census]], roughly 600,000 people in New Zealand identified as being Māori.

==== Niue ====
{{Main|History of Niue}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2024}}

==== Samoa ====
{{Main|History of Samoa}}
[[File:F 2 070 182 Uk Uni grinding stone 1957 Myer's plantation, Samoa.jpg|thumb|Grinding stones discovered from [[archaeology of Samoa|archaeology in Samoa]]]]
In the 9th century, the [[Tui Manu'a|Tui Manuʻa]] controlled a vast maritime empire comprising most of the settled islands of Polynesia. The Tui Manuʻa is one of the oldest Samoan titles in Samoa. Traditional [[oral literature]] of Samoa and Manu'a talks of a widespread [[Polynesians|Polynesian]] network or [[confederation|confederacy]] (or "empire") that was prehistorically ruled by the successive Tui Manuʻa dynasties. Manuan genealogies and religious oral literature also suggest that the Tui Manuʻa had long been one of the most prestigious and powerful paramount of Samoa. Oral history suggests that the Tui Manuʻa kings governed a confederacy of far-flung islands which included [[Fiji]], [[Tonga]] as well as smaller western Pacific [[chiefdom]]s and [[Polynesian outlier]]s such as [[Uvea (Wallis and Futuna)|Uvea]], [[Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna|Futuna]], [[Tokelau]], and [[Tuvalu]]. Commerce and exchange routes between the western Polynesian societies are well documented and it is speculated that the Tui Manuʻa dynasty grew through its success in obtaining control over the oceanic trade of currency goods such as finely woven ceremonial mats, whale [[ivory]] "[[tabua]]", [[obsidian]] and [[basalt]] tools, chiefly red feathers, and seashells reserved for royalty (such as polished [[nautilus]] and the egg [[cowry]]).

Samoa's long history of various ruling families continued until well after the decline of the Tui Manuʻa's power, with the western isles of Savaiʻi and Upolu rising to prominence in the post-Tongan occupation period and the establishment of the [[tafaʻifa]] system that dominated Samoan politics well into the 20th century. This was disrupted in the early 1900s due to colonial intervention, with east–west division by [[Tripartite Convention (1899)]] and subsequent annexation by the [[German Empire]] and the United States. The German-controlled Western portion of Samoa (consisting of the bulk of Samoan territory – Savaiʻi, Apolima, Manono and Upolu) was occupied by New Zealand in WWI, and administered by it under a Class C [[League of Nations mandate]]. After repeated efforts by the Samoan independence movement, the New Zealand Western Samoa Act of 24 November 1961 granted Samoa independence, effective on January 1, 1962, upon which the Trusteeship Agreement terminated. The new Independent State of Samoa was not a monarchy, though the Malietoa titleholder remained very influential. It effectively ended however with the death of [[Malietoa Tanumafili II]], the country's head of state, on May 11, 2007.

====Tahiti====
{{Main|Pōmare dynasty|Kingdom of Tahiti}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2024}}

==== Tonga ====
{{Main|History of Tonga}}

[[File:Tasman-dagboek-a.jpg|thumb|The arrival of [[Abel Tasman]] in [[Tongatapu]], 1643; drawing by [[Isaack Gilsemans]] ]]

In the 10th century, the [[Tuʻi Tonga Empire]] was established in Tonga, and most of the Western Pacific came within its sphere of influence, up to parts of the [[Solomon Islands]]. The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language throughout most of Polynesia. The empire began to decline in the 13th century.

After a bloody civil war, political power in Tonga eventually fell under the [[Tuʻi Kanokupolu]] dynasty in the 16th century.

In 1845, the ambitious young warrior, strategist, and orator [[George Tupou I|Tāufaʻāhau]] united Tonga into a more Western-style kingdom. He held the chiefly title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu, but had been baptised with the name Jiaoji ("George") in 1831. In 1875, with the help of the missionary [[Shirley Waldemar Baker]], he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, formally adopted the western royal style, emancipated the "serfs", enshrined a code of law, land tenure, and freedom of the press, and limited the power of the chiefs.

Tonga became a [[British protectorate]] under a Treaty of Friendship on 18 May 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs tried to oust the second king. Within the [[British Empire]], which posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul (1901–1970), Tonga formed part of the [[British Western Pacific Territories]] (under a High Commissioner who residing in [[Fiji]]) from 1901 until 1952. Despite being under the protectorate, Tonga retained its monarchy without interruption. On June 4, 1970, the [[Kingdom of Tonga]] became independent from the British Empire.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/05/archives/tongas-150-polynesian-islands-now-independent-tongas-150-polynesian.html |title=Tonga's 150 Polynesian Islands Now Independent |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 June 1970 |access-date=6 October 2021}}</ref>

====Tuvalu====
{{Main|History of Tuvalu}}

[[File:Canoe carving on Nanumea.jpg|thumb|upright|Canoe carving on [[Nanumea]] atoll, Tuvalu]]

The [[reef]] islands and [[atoll]]s of [[Tuvalu]] are identified as being part of West Polynesia. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the islands as [[Polynesian navigation]] skills are recognised to have allowed deliberate journeys on double-hull sailing canoes or [[outrigger boat|outrigger canoes]].<ref name="Belwood10">{{cite book |last1= Bellwood|first1= Peter|title=The Polynesians – Prehistory of an Island People |year= 1987 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |pages=39–44}}</ref> Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in [[Tuvaluan language|Tuvaluan]]. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from Samoa and [[Tonga]] into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone for migration into the [[Polynesian outlier|Polynesian outlier communities]] in [[Melanesia]] and [[Micronesia]].<ref name="Belwood2">{{cite book |last1= Bellwood|first1= Peter|title=The Polynesians – Prehistory of an Island People|year= 1987 |publisher=Thames and Hudson  |pages=29, 54|isbn=978-0500274507}}</ref><ref name="Bayard">{{cite book |last1=Bayard|first1=D.T.|title=The Cultural Relationships of the Polynesian Outiers |year= 1976 |publisher=Otago University, Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology, Vol. 9}}</ref><ref name="Kirch">{{cite journal|last1=Kirch|first1=P.V. |title=The Polynesian Outiers|year= 1984 |volume=95 |issue=4|journal= Journal of Pacific History|pages=224–238|doi=10.1080/00223348408572496}}</ref>

Stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On [[Niutao]],<ref name="PAS">{{cite book |author=Sogivalu, Pulekau A. |title=A Brief History of Niutao|year=1992 |publisher= Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific|isbn=978-982-02-0058-6}}</ref> [[Funafuti]] and [[Vaitupu]] the founding ancestor is described as being from [[Samoa]];<ref name="Genesis 1983">{{cite book |author=O'Brien, Talakatoa |title=Tuvalu: A History, Chapter 1, Genesis |year=1983 |publisher=Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Government of Tuvalu}}</ref><ref name="Kennedy">{{cite journal |author=Kennedy, Donald G. |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_38_1929/Field_notes_on_the_culture_of_Vaitupu%2C_Ellice_Islands%2C_by_Donald_Gilbert_Kennedy%2C_p_1-99/p1?action=null |title=Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=38 |year=1929 |pages=2–5 |access-date=2011-10-28 |archive-date=2008-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015043119/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_38_1929/Field_notes_on_the_culture_of_Vaitupu%2C_Ellice_Islands%2C_by_Donald_Gilbert_Kennedy%2C_p_1-99/p1?action=null}}</ref> whereas on [[Nanumea]] the founding ancestor is described as being from [[Tonga]].<ref name="Genesis 1983"/>

The extent of influence of the [[Tuʻi Tonga]] line of Tongan kings, which originated in the 10th century, is understood to have extended to some of the islands of Tuvalu in the 11th to mid-13th century.<ref name="Kennedy"/> The oral history of [[Niutao]] recalls that in the 15th century Tongan warriors were defeated in a battle on the reef of Niutao. Tongan warriors also invaded Niutao later in the 15th century and again were repelled. A third and fourth Tongan invasion of Niutao occurred in the late 16th century, again with the Tongans being defeated.<ref name="PAS"/>

Tuvalu was first sighted by Europeans in January 1568 during the voyage of Spanish navigator [[Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira]] who sailed past the island of [[Nui (atoll)|Nui]], and charted it as ''Isla de Jesús'' (Spanish for "Island of Jesus") because the previous day was the feast of the [[Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus|Holy Name]]. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but did not land.<ref name="HEMaude59">{{cite journal |first=H. E. |last=Maude |title=Spanish Discoveries in the Central Pacific: A Study in Identification |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_68_1959/Volume_68,_No._4/Spanish_discoveries_in_the_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_285-326/p1 |year=1959 |volume=68 |issue=4 |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |pages=284–326 |access-date=2020-09-25 |archive-date=2018-02-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210235215/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_68_1959/Volume_68%2C_No._4/Spanish_discoveries_in_the_Pacific%2C_by_H._E._Maude%2C_p_285-326/p1}}</ref> During Mendaña's second voyage across the Pacific he passed [[Niulakita]] in August 1595, which he named ''La Solitaria'', meaning "the solitary one".<ref name="HEMaude59"/><ref name="KSDDM">{{cite book |first1=Keith S. |last1=Chambers |first2=Doug |last2=Munro |title=The Mystery of Gran Cocal: European Discovery and Mis-Discovery in Tuvalu |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_89_1980/Volume_89,_No._2/The_%26apos%3Bmystery%26apos%3B_of_Gran_Cocal%3A_European_discovery_and_mis-discovery_in_Tuvalu,_by_Doug_Munro,_p_167-198/p1 |year=1980 |publisher=89(2) The Journal of the Polynesian Society |pages=167–198 |access-date=2020-09-25 |archive-date=2018-12-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215134048/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_89_1980/Volume_89%2C_No._2/The_%26apos%3Bmystery%26apos%3B_of_Gran_Cocal%3A_European_discovery_and_mis-discovery_in_Tuvalu%2C_by_Doug_Munro%2C_p_167-198/p1}}</ref>

Fishing was the primary source of protein, with the [[Tuvaluan cuisine]] reflecting food that could be grown on low-lying atolls. Navigation between the islands of Tuvalu was carried out using outrigger canoes. The population levels of the low-lying islands of Tuvalu had to be managed because of the effects of periodic droughts and the risk of severe famine if the gardens were poisoned by salt from the storm surge of a [[tropical cyclone]].

==Links to the Americas==
{{Further|Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories#Polynesian, Melanesian, and Austronesian contact}}

The [[sweet potato]], called {{lang|mi|kūmara}} in [[Māori language|Māori]] and {{lang|qu|kumar}} in [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]], is native to the Americas and was widespread in Polynesia when Europeans first reached the Pacific. Remains of the plant in the Cook Islands have been radiocarbon-dated to before 1400, and the present scholarly consensus<ref name="plos">{{cite journal|last1=Barber|first1=Ian|last2=Higham|first2=Thomas F. G.|journal=[[PLOS One]]|title=Archaeological science meets Māori knowledge to model pre-Columbian sweet potato (''Ipomoea batatas'') dispersal to Polynesia's southernmost habitable margins|date=14 April 2021|volume=16|issue=4|pages=e0247643|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0247643|pmid=33852587|pmc=8046222|bibcode=2021PLoSO..1647643B|doi-access=free}}</ref> is that it was brought to central Polynesia {{circa|1300}} by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back, from where it spread across the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Tilburg |first=Jo Anne |year=1994 |title=Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press}}</ref> Some genetic evidence suggests that sweet potatoes may have reached Polynesia via seeds at least 100,000 years ago, pre-dating human arrival;<ref name="Fox">{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Alex |title=Sweet potato migrated to Polynesia thousands of years before people did |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04488-4 |access-date=21 June 2019 |work=Nature |date=12 April 2018}}</ref> however, this hypothesis fails to account for the similarity of names.

There are also other possible material and cultural evidence of [[Pre-Columbian era|Pre-Columbian]] contact by Polynesia with the Americas with varying levels of plausibility. These include [[chicken]]s, [[coconut]]s, and [[bottle gourd]]s. The question of whether Polynesians reached the Americas and the extent of cultural and material influences resulting from such a contact remains highly contentious among anthropologists.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Jones |editor1-first=Terry L. |editor2-last=Storey |editor2-first=Alice A. |editor3-last=Matisoo-Smith |editor3-first=Elizabeth A. |editor4-last=Ramirez-Aliaga |editor4-first=Jose Miguel |title=Polynesians in America: Pre-Columbian Contacts with the New World |date=2011 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=9780759120068 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncWCVCaWMuAC}}</ref>

One of the most enduring misconceptions about Polynesians was that they originated from the Americas. This was due to [[Thor Heyerdahl]]'s proposals in the mid-20th century that the Polynesians had migrated in two waves of migrations: one by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] from the northwest coast of Canada by large whale-hunting dugouts; and the other from South America by "bearded white men" with "reddish to blond hair" and "blue-grey eyes" led by a high priest and sun-king named "Kon-Tiki" on [[balsa]]-log rafts. He claimed the "white men" then "civilized" the dark-skinned natives in Polynesia. He set out to prove this by embarking on a highly publicized [[Kon-Tiki expedition|''Kon-Tiki'' expedition]] on a primitive raft with a [[Scandinavia#Scandinavian as an ethnic term and as a demonym|Scandinavian]] crew. It captured the public's attention, making the ''Kon-Tiki'' a household name.<ref name="Sharp_1963_122128">Sharp, Andrew (1963). ''Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia'', Longman Paul Ltd. pp. 122–128.</ref><ref name="Finney_1963_5">Finney, Ben R. (1976) "New, Non-Armchair Research". In Ben R. Finney, ''Pacific Navigation and Voyaging'', The Polynesian Society Inc. p. 5.</ref><ref name="Andersson">{{cite book |last1=Andersson |first1=Axel |title=A Hero for the Atomic Age: Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition |date=2010 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=9781906165314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrhPH-9mnd8C}}</ref>

None of Heyerdahl's proposals have been accepted in the scientific community.<ref>Robert C. Suggs ''The Island Civilizations of Polynesia'', New York: New American Library, p.212-224.</ref><ref>Kirch, P. (2000). ''On the Roads to the Wind: An archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact''. [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]]: [[University of California Press]], 2000.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Barnes, S.S. |display-authors=etal |title=Ancient DNA of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) |url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Hunt/pdfs/Barnesetal2006.pdf |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=33 |issue=11 |pages=1536–1540 |year=2006 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.006|bibcode=2006JArSc..33.1536B|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719205425/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/People/Faculty/Hunt/pdfs/Barnesetal2006.pdf |archive-date=July 19, 2011}}</ref> The anthropologist [[Wade Davis (anthropologist)|Wade Davis]] in his book ''The Wayfinders'', criticized Heyerdahl as having "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."<ref>Davis, Wade (2010) ''The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World'', Crawley: University of Western Australia Publishing, p. 46.</ref> Anthropologist [[Robert Carl Suggs]] included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The ''Kon-Tiki'' theory is about as plausible as the tales of [[Atlantis]], [[Mu (mythical lost continent)|Mu]], and 'Children of the Sun'. Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."<ref>Robert C. Suggs, ''The Island Civilizations of Polynesia'', New York: New American Library, p.224.</ref> Other authors have also criticized Heyerdahl's hypothesis for its implicit [[racism]] in attributing advances in Polynesian society to "white people", at the same time ignoring relatively advanced [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] maritime technology in favor of a primitive balsa raft.<ref name="Andersson"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Magelssen |first1=Scott |title=White-Skinned Gods: Thor Heyerdahl, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and the Racial Theory of Polynesian Origins |journal=TDR/The Drama Review |date=March 2016 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=25–49 |doi=10.1162/DRAM_a_00522 |s2cid=57559261}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coughlin |first1=Jenna |title=Trouble in Paradise: Revising Identity in Two Texts by Thor Heyerdahl |journal=Scandinavian Studies |date=2016 |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=246–269 |jstor=10.5406/scanstud.88.3.0246 |doi=10.5406/scanstud.88.3.0246 |s2cid=164373747 }}</ref>

In July 2020, a novel high-density genome-wide DNA analysis of Polynesians and Native South Americans reported that there has been [[genetic admixture|intermingling]] between Polynesian people and [[pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia|pre-Columbian]] [[Zenú|Zenú people]] in a period dated between 1150 and 1380 AD.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Native South Americans were early inhabitants of Polynesia |last=Wallin |first=Paul |date=8 July 2020 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=583 |issue=7817 |pages=524–525 |doi=10.1038/d41586-020-01983-5 |pmid=32641787 |bibcode=2020Natur.583..524W |s2cid=220436442 |quote=DNA analysis of Polynesians and Native South Americans has revealed an ancient genetic signature that resolves a long-running debate over Polynesian origins and early contacts between the two populations.|doi-access=free }}</ref> Whether this happened because of [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous American]] people reaching eastern Polynesia or because the northern coast of South America was visited by Polynesians is not clear yet.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wade |first=Lizzie |date=8 July 2020 |title=Polynesians steering by the stars met Native Americans long before Europeans arrived |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/polynesians-steering-stars-met-native-americans-long-europeans-arrived |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717034835/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/polynesians-steering-stars-met-native-americans-long-europeans-arrived |archive-date=17 July 2020 |access-date=11 July 2020 |work=[[Science (journal)|Science]] }}</ref>

==Cultures==<!-- This section is linked from [[French Polynesia]] -->
{{Main|Polynesian culture}}

[[File:Paul Gauguin 056.jpg|Painting of ''Tahitian Women on the Beach'' by [[Paul Gauguin]]—[[Musée d'Orsay]]|thumb]]

Polynesia divides into two distinct cultural groups, East Polynesia and West Polynesia. The culture of West Polynesia is conditioned to high populations. It has strong institutions of marriage and well-developed judicial, monetary and trading traditions. West Polynesia comprises the groups of [[Tonga]], [[Samoa]] and surrounding islands. The pattern of settlement to East Polynesia began from Samoan Islands into the Tuvaluan atolls, with [[Tuvalu]] providing a stepping stone to migration into the [[Polynesian outlier|Polynesian outlier communities]] in [[Melanesia]] and [[Micronesia]].<ref name="Belwood2" /><ref name="Bayard" /><ref name="Kirch" />

Eastern Polynesian cultures are highly adapted to smaller islands and atolls, principally [[Niue]], the [[Cook Islands]], [[Tahiti]], the [[Tuamotus]], the [[Marquesas]], [[Hawaii]], [[Easter Island|Rapa Nui]], and smaller central-pacific groups. The large islands of [[New Zealand]] were first settled by Eastern Polynesians who adapted their culture to a non-tropical environment.

Unlike western [[Melanesia]], leaders were chosen in Polynesia based on their hereditary bloodline. Samoa, however, had another system of government that combines elements of heredity and real-world skills to choose leaders. This system is called [[Fa'amatai]]. According to Ben R. Finney and Eric M. Jones, "On Tahiti, for example, the 35,000 Polynesians living there at the time of European discovery were divided between high-status persons with full access to food and other resources, and low-status persons with limited access."<ref name="polynesia"/>
[[File:TahuhuNgatiAwa.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Wood carving|Carving]] from the ridgepole of a [[Māori people|Māori]] house, ca 1840]]

Religion, farming, fishing, weather prediction, out-rigger canoe (similar to modern [[catamaran]]s) construction and [[navigation]] were highly developed skills because the population of an entire island depended on them. Trading of both luxuries and mundane items was important to all groups. Periodic droughts and subsequent famines often led to war.<ref name="polynesia">Finney, Ben R. and Jones, Eric M. (1986). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=iKnaLbRtQasC&pg=PA176 Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience]''". [[University of California Press]]. p.176. {{ISBN|0-520-05898-4}}</ref> Many low-lying islands could suffer severe famine if their gardens were poisoned by the salt from the storm surge of a [[tropical cyclone]]. In these cases fishing, the primary source of protein, would not ease the loss of [[food energy]]. Navigators, in particular, were highly respected and each island maintained a house of navigation with a canoe-building area.

Settlements by the Polynesians were of two categories: the hamlet and the village. The size of the island inhabited determined whether or not a hamlet would be built. The larger [[volcanic island]]s usually had hamlets because of the many zones that could be divided across the island. Food and resources were more plentiful. These settlements of four to five houses (usually with gardens) were established so that there would be no overlap between the zones. Villages, on the other hand, were built on the coasts of smaller islands and consisted of thirty or more houses—in the case of atolls, on only one of the group so that food cultivation was on the others. Usually, these villages were fortified with walls and palisades made of stone and wood.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1995</ref>

However, New Zealand demonstrates the opposite: large volcanic islands with fortified villages.

As well as being great navigators, these people were [[Oceanian art#Polynesia|artists and artisans]] of great skill. Simple objects, such as fish-hooks would be manufactured to exacting standards for different catches and decorated even when the decoration was not part of the function. Stone and wooden weapons were considered to be more powerful the better they were made and decorated. In some island groups weaving was a strong part of the culture and giving woven articles as gifts was an ingrained practice. Dwellings were imbued with character by the skill of their building. Body decoration and jewelry is of an international standard to this day.

The religious attributes of Polynesians were common over the whole Pacific region. While there are some differences in their spoken languages they largely have the same explanation for the creation of the earth and sky, for the gods that rule aspects of life and for the religious practices of everyday life. People traveled thousands of miles to celebrations that they all owned communally.

Beginning in the 1820s large numbers of missionaries worked in the islands, converting many groups to Christianity. Polynesia, argues Ian Breward, is now "one of the most strongly Christian regions in the world....Christianity was rapidly and successfully incorporated into Polynesian culture. War and slavery disappeared."<ref>Ian Breward in {{cite book |last1=Farhadian |first1=Charles E. |last2=Hefner |first2=Robert W. |title=Introducing World Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qjCRE85QjYC&pg=PA228 |year=2012 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages=218–229 |isbn=9781405182485}}; quote at p 228</ref>

==Demographics==
The countries and territories in this table are categorised according to sources in cross-referenced articles; where sources differ, provisos have been clearly indicated. These territories and regions are subject to various additional categorisations, depending on the source and purpose of each description.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="border:1px solid #aaa; font-size:90%;"
|- style="background:#ececec;"|
! style="line-height:95%; width:4em" class="unsortable" | [[Coat of arms|Arms]]
! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | Flag
! Name of region, followed by countries<ref name="region">Regions and constituents as per [[:File:United Nations geographical subregions.png|UN categorisations/map]] except [[#endnote CCAU|notes 2–3]], 6. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 3, 5–7, 9) may be in [[List of countries spanning more than one continent|one or both of]] Oceania and Asia or North America.<br /></ref>
! data-sort-type="number" | [[List of countries and outlying territories by total area|Area]]<br />(km<sup>2</sup>)
! data-sort-type="number" | [[List of countries by population|Population]]<br />({{UN_Population|Year}}){{UN_Population|ref}}
! data-sort-type="number" | [[List of countries and dependencies by population density|Population density]]<br />(per km<sup>2</sup>)
! [[Capital (political)|Capital]]
! [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2|ISO 3166-1]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{center|[[File:Seal of American Samoa.svg|20px]]}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|American Samoa}}
| [[American Samoa]] (United States)
| style="text-align:right;"| 199
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|American Samoa}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 279.4
| [[Pago Pago]], [[Fagatogo]]<ref name="ASamoa">[[Fagatogo]] is the seat of government of [[American Samoa]].<br /></ref>
| AS
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Cook Islands}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Cook Islands}}
| '''[[Cook Islands]]'''
| style="text-align:right;"| 240
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Cook Islands}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 72.4
| [[Avarua]]
| CK
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Easter Island}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Easter Island}}
| [[Easter Island]] (Chile)
| style="text-align:right;"| 164
| style="text-align:right;"| 5,761
| style="text-align:right;"| 35.1
| [[Hanga Roa]]
| CL
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|French Polynesia}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|French Polynesia}}
| [[French Polynesia]] (France)
| style="text-align:right;"| 4,167
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|French Polynesia}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 67.2
| [[Papeete]]
| PF
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Hawaii}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Hawaii}}
| [[Hawaii]] (United States)
| style="text-align:right;"| 16,636
| style="text-align:right;"| 1,360,301
| style="text-align:right;"| 81.8
| [[Honolulu]]
| US
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|United States}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Johnston Atoll}}
| [[Johnston Atoll]] (United States)
| style="text-align:right;"| 276.6
| style="text-align:right;"| 0
| style="text-align:right;"| 0
| [[Johnston Atoll]]
| UM
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|United States}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Midway Atoll}}
| [[Midway Atoll]] (United States)
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,355
| style="text-align:right;"| 39
| style="text-align:right;"| 6.37
| [[Midway Atoll]]
| UM
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|New Zealand}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|New Zealand}}
| '''[[New Zealand]]'''{{efn|Part of [[Australasia]] according to the UN}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 268,680
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|New Zealand}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 17.3
| [[Wellington]]
| NZ
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|New Zealand}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Niue}}
| '''[[Niue]]'''
| style="text-align:right;"| 260
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Niue}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 6.2
| [[Alofi]]
| NU
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Pitcairn Islands}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Pitcairn Islands}}
| [[Pitcairn Islands]] (United Kingdom)
| style="text-align:right;"| 47
| style="text-align:right;"| 47
| style="text-align:right;"| 1
| [[Adamstown, Pitcairn Island|Adamstown]]
| PN
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Samoa}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Samoa}}
| '''[[Samoa]]'''
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,944
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Samoa}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 66.3
| [[Apia]]
| WS
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{center|[[File:Badge of Tokelau.svg|20px]]}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Tokelau}}
| [[Tokelau]] (New Zealand)
| style="text-align:right;"| 10
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Tokelau}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 128.2
| [[Atafu]] <small>(''de facto'')</small>
| TK
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Tonga}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Tonga}}
| '''[[Tonga]]'''
| style="text-align:right;"| 748
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Tonga}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 143.2
| [[Nuku{{fakau'a}}alofa]]
| TO
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|text=none|Tuvalu}}
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Tuvalu}}
| '''[[Tuvalu]]'''
| style="text-align:right;"| 26
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Tuvalu}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 426.8
| [[Funafuti]]
| TV
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| [[File:BlasonWallisetFutuna.svg|20px]]
| style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|Wallis and Futuna|local}}
| [[Wallis and Futuna]] (France)
| style="text-align:right;"| 274
| style="text-align:right;"| {{UN_Population|Wallis and Futuna Islands}}
| style="text-align:right;"| 43.4
| [[Mata-Utu]]
| WF
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|
| style="text-align:center;"|
| '''Polynesia''' (total excluding New Zealand)
| style="text-align:right;"| 25,715
| style="text-align:right;"| 2,047,444
| style="text-align:right;"| 79.6
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|
| style="text-align:center;"|
| '''Polynesia''' (total including New Zealand)
| style="text-align:right;"| 294,395
| style="text-align:right;"| 7,177,171
|}

==Languages==
{{Main|Polynesian languages}}

Polynesian languages are all members of the family of [[Oceanic languages]], a sub-branch of the [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] language family. Polynesian languages show a considerable degree of similarity. The [[vowels]] are generally the same—/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/, pronounced as in [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[German language|German]]—and the consonants are always followed by a vowel. The languages of various island groups show changes in [[consonant]]s. The [[glottal stop]] /ʔ/ is increasingly represented by an inverted comma or [[ʻokina]]. In the [[Society Islands]], the original [[Proto-Polynesian language|Proto-Polynesian]] ''*k'' and ''*[[Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]'' (or the ng sound) have merged as /ʔ/, ''*s'' changed to /h/, and ''*w'' changed to /v/; so the name for the ancestral homeland, deriving from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian ''*sawaiki'',<ref name="pollexSawaiki">{{cite web|url=http://pollex.org.nz/entry/sawaiki/ |title=Polynesian Lexicon Project Online |publisher=Pollex.org.nz }}</ref> becomes Havaiʻi. In New Zealand, where ''*s'' changed to /h/, the ancient home is [[Hawaiki]]. In the Cook Islands, where /ʔ/ replaces ''*s'' (with a likely intermediate stage of ''*h'') and /v/ replaces ''*w'', it is ʻAvaiki. In the Hawaiian islands, where /ʔ/ and /h/ replace ''*k'' and ''*s'', respectively, the largest island of the group is named Hawaiʻi. In Samoa, where /v/ and /ʔ/ replace ''*w'' and ''*k'', respectively, the largest island is called [[Savaiʻi]].<ref name=trh>{{cite book
|url=http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-BucViki-t1-body-d1-d7.html
|via=NZ Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University, NZ Licence CC BY-SA 3.0
|title=Vikings of the Sunrise
|first=Te Rangi (Sir Peter Henry Buck)
|last=Hiroa
|page=67
|year=1964|edition=reprint
|publisher=Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.
|access-date=2 March 2010
}}</ref>

==Economy==
With the exception of New Zealand, the majority of independent Polynesian islands derive much of their income from foreign aid and remittances from those who live in other countries. Some encourage their young people to go where they can earn good money to remit to their stay-at-home relatives. Many Polynesian locations, such as [[Easter Island]], supplement this with tourism income. Some have more unusual sources of income, such as [[Tuvalu]] which marketed its '[[.tv]]' internet top-level domain name or the Cooks that relied on [[postage stamp]] sales.

[[File:Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi]], [[Prime Minister of Samoa]] from 1998 to 2021, who initiated the [[Polynesian Leaders Group]] in late 2011.]]

Aside from New Zealand, another focus area of economic dependence regarding tourism is Hawaii. Hawaii is one of the most visited areas within the Polynesian Triangle, entertaining more than ten million visitors annually, excluding 2020. The economy of Hawaii, like that of New Zealand, is steadily dependent on annual tourists and financial counseling or aid from other countries or states. "The rate of tourist growth has made the economy overly dependent on this one sector, leaving Hawaii extremely vulnerable to external economic forces."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Matsuoka|first1=Jon|last2=Kelly|first2=Terry|date=1988-12-01|title=The Environmental, Economic, and Social Impacts of Resort Development and Tourism on Native Hawaiians|url=https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol15/iss4/3|journal=The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare|volume=15|issue=4|doi=10.15453/0191-5096.1868 |s2cid=141987142 |issn=0191-5096|doi-access=free}}</ref> By keeping this in mind, island states and nations similar to Hawaii are paying closer attention to other avenues that can positively affect their economy by practicing more independence and less emphasis on tourist entertainment.

==Inter-Polynesian cooperation==
The first major attempt at uniting the Polynesian islands was by [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] in the 1930s, when various theorists (chiefly [[Hachirō Arita]]) began promulgating the idea of what would soon become known as the [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]]. Under the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, all nations stretching from [[Southeast Asia]] and [[Northeast Asia]] to [[Oceania]] would be united under one, large, cultural and economic bloc which would be free from Western [[imperialism]]. The policy theorists who conceived it, along with the Japanese public, largely saw it as a pan-Asian movement driven by ideals of freedom and independence from Western colonial oppression. In practice, however, it was frequently corrupted by militarists who saw it as an effective policy vehicle through which to strengthen Japan's position and advance its dominance within Asia. At its greatest extent, it stretched from [[Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina|Japanese occupied Indochina]] in the west to the [[Gilbert Islands]] in the east, although it was originally planned to stretch as far east as [[Hawaii]] and [[Easter Island]] and as far west as [[India]]. This never came to fruition, however, as Japan was defeated during [[World War II]] and subsequently lost all power and influence it had.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tolland|first= John|authorlink=John Toland (historian) |title= The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936–1945|pages= 447–448 |quote=It had been created by idealists who wanted to free Asia from the white man.  As with many dreams, it was taken over and exploited by realists... Corrupted as the Co-Prosperity Sphere was by the militarists and their nationalist supporters, its call for pan-asianism remained relatively undiminished}}</ref><ref name="Weinberg">Weinberg, L. Gerhard. (2005). ''Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders'' p.62-65.</ref>

After several years of discussing a potential regional grouping, three sovereign states (Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu) and five self-governing but non-sovereign territories formally launched, in November 2011, the [[Polynesian Leaders Group]], intended to cooperate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment. It does not, however, constitute a political or monetary union.<ref>[http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2011/09/nz-may-be-invited-to-join-proposed-polynesian-triangle-ginger-group/ "NZ may be invited to join proposed 'Polynesian Triangle' ginger group"], Pacific Scoop, 19 September 2011</ref><ref>[http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=64516 "New Polynesian Leaders Group formed in Samoa"], Radio New Zealand International, 18 November 2011</ref><ref name="Savali">{{cite news |title=American Samoa joins Polynesian Leaders Group, MOU signed |url=https://www.samoanews.com/american-samoa-joins-poly-leaders-group-mou-signed |access-date=30 July 2020 |work=Samoa News |agency=Savalii |date=20 November 2011}}</ref>

==Navigation==
{{Main|Polynesian navigation}}

Polynesia comprised islands diffused throughout a triangular area with sides of four thousand miles. The area from the Hawaiian Islands in the north, to Easter Island in the east and to New Zealand in the south were all settled by Polynesians.

[[Navigator]]s traveled to small inhabited islands using only their own senses and knowledge passed by [[oral tradition]] from navigator to apprentice. In order to locate directions at various times of day and year, navigators in Eastern Polynesia memorized important facts: the motion of specific [[star]]s, and where they would rise on the [[horizon]] of the ocean; [[weather]]; times of travel; wildlife species (which congregate at particular positions); directions of swells on the ocean, and how the crew would feel their motion; colors of the sea and sky, especially how clouds would cluster at the locations of some islands; and angles for approaching harbors.

[[File:Priests traveling across kealakekua bay for first contact rituals.jpg|thumb|right|Polynesian (Hawaiian) navigators sailing multi-hulled [[canoe]], c. 1781]]
[[File:Va'a canoe, Matavai village, Savaii, Samoa MS.JPG|thumb|right|A common fishing canoe ''va'a'' with outrigger in [[Savaiʻi]] island, [[Samoa]], 2009]]

These [[wayfinding]] techniques, along with [[outrigger]] [[canoe]] construction methods, were kept as [[guild]] secrets. Generally, each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty these navigators could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighboring islands. On his first voyage of Pacific exploration Cook had the services of a Polynesian navigator, [[Tupaia (navigator)|Tupaia]], who drew a hand-drawn chart of the islands within {{convert|2000|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} radius (to the north and west) of his home island of [[Ra'iatea]]. Tupaia had knowledge of 130 islands and named 74 on his chart.<ref name="Druett2">{{cite book |last1= Druett |first1= Joan|title=Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator |year= 1987 |publisher=Random House, New Zealand|pages=226–227|isbn=978-0313387487}}</ref> Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 islands. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather's time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans has diminished to the islands of eastern Polynesia. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to [[Samoa]], [[Tonga]] and Melanesian island of [[Fiji]].<ref name="Druett1">{{cite book |last1= Druett |first1= Joan|title=Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator |year= 1987 |publisher=Random House, New Zealand |pages=218–233|isbn=978-0313387487}}</ref> As the Admiralty orders directed Cook to search for the [[Terra Australis|"Great Southern Continent"]], Cook ignored Tupaia's chart and his skills as a navigator. To this day, original traditional methods of Polynesian Navigation are still taught in the [[Polynesian outlier]] of [[Duff Islands|Taumako Island]] in the [[Islands of the Solomon Islands|Solomon Islands]].

From a single chicken bone recovered from the archaeological site of El Arenal-1, on the [[Arauco Peninsula]], Chile, a 2007 research report looking at radiocarbon dating and an ancient DNA sequence indicate that Polynesian navigators may have reached the Americas at least 100 years before Columbus (who arrived 1492 AD), introducing chickens to South America.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/science/05chic.html |title=First Chickens in Americas Were Brought From Polynesia |first=John Noble |last=Wilford |work=The New York Times |date=June 5, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Storey | first1 = A. A.
| last2 = Ramirez | first2 = J. M.
| last3 = Quiroz | first3 = D.
| last4 = Burley | first4 = D. V.
| last5 = Addison | first5 = D. J.
| last6 = Walter | first6 = R.
| last7 = Anderson | first7 = A. J.
| last8 = Hunt | first8 = T. L.
| last9 = Athens | first9 = J. S.
| last10 = Huynen
| doi = 10.1073/pnas.0703993104 | first10 = L.
| last11 = Matisoo-Smith | first11 = E. A.
| title = Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile
| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
| volume = 104
| issue = 25
| pages = 10335–10339
| year = 2007
| pmid = 17556540
| pmc =1965514
| bibcode = 2007PNAS..10410335S
| doi-access = free
}}</ref> A later report looking at the same specimens concluded:

<blockquote>A published, apparently pre-Columbian, Chilean specimen and six pre-European Polynesian specimens also cluster with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of chickens to South America. In contrast, sequences from two archaeological sites on Easter Island group with an uncommon haplogroup from Indonesia, Japan, and China and may represent a genetic signature of an early Polynesian dispersal. Modeling of the potential marine carbon contribution to the Chilean archaeological specimen casts further doubt on claims for pre-Columbian chickens, and definitive proof will require further analyses of ancient DNA sequences and radiocarbon and stable isotope data from archaeological excavations within both Chile and Polynesia.<ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Gongora | first1 = J.
| last2 = Rawlence | first2 = N. J.
| last3 = Mobegi | first3 = V. A.
| last4 = Jianlin | first4 = H.
| last5 = Alcalde | first5 = J. A.
| last6 = Matus | first6 = J. T.
| last7 = Hanotte | first7 = O.
| last8 = Moran | first8 = C.
| last9 = Austin | first9 = J. J.
| doi = 10.1073/pnas.0801991105
| last10 = Ulm | first10 = S.
| last11 = Anderson | first11 = A. J.
| last12 = Larson | first12 = G.
| last13 = Cooper | first13 = A.
| title = Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA
| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
| volume = 105
| issue = 30
| pages = 10308–10313
| year = 2008
| pmid = 18663216
| pmc =2492461
| bibcode = 2008PNAS..10510308G
| doi-access = free
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Knowledge of the traditional Polynesian methods of navigation was largely lost after contact with and colonization by Europeans. This left the problem of accounting for the presence of the Polynesians in such isolated and scattered parts of the Pacific. By the late 19th century to the early 20th century, a more generous view of Polynesian navigation had come into favor, perhaps creating a romantic picture of their canoes, seamanship and navigational expertise.

In the mid to late 1960s, scholars began testing sailing and paddling experiments related to Polynesian navigation: [[David Henry Lewis|David Lewis]] sailed his catamaran from Tahiti to New Zealand using [[celestial navigation|stellar navigation]] without instruments and [[Ben Finney]] built a 12-meter (40-foot) replica of a Hawaiian double canoe "Nalehia" and tested it in Hawaii.<ref>Lewis, David. [http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=4479 "A Return Voyage Between Puluwat and Saipan Using Micronesian Navigational Techniques"]. In Ben R. Finney (1976), ''Pacific Navigation and Voyaging'', The Polynesian Society Inc.</ref> Meanwhile, Micronesian ethnographic research in the Caroline Islands revealed that traditional stellar navigational methods were still in everyday use. Recent re-creations of Polynesian voyaging have used methods based largely on Micronesian methods and the teachings of a Micronesian navigator, [[Mau Piailug]].

It is probable that the Polynesian navigators employed a whole range of techniques including use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and [[atoll]]s, the flight of birds, the winds and the weather. Scientists think that long-distance Polynesian voyaging followed the seasonal paths of [[bird migration|birds]]. There are some references in their oral traditions to the flight of birds and some say that there were range marks onshore pointing to distant islands in line with these [[flyway]]s. One theory is that they would have taken a [[frigatebird]] with them. These birds refuse to land on the water as their feathers will become waterlogged making it impossible to fly. When the voyagers thought they were close to land they may have released the bird, which would either fly towards land or else return to the canoe. It is likely that the Polynesians also used wave and swell formations to navigate. It is thought that the Polynesian navigators may have measured the time it took to sail between islands in "canoe-days" or a similar type of expression.

Another navigational technique may have involved following sea turtle migrations. While other navigational techniques may have been sufficient to reach known islands, some research finds only sea turtles could have helped Polynesian navigators reach new islands. Sea turtle migrations are feasible for canoes to follow, at shallow depths, slower speeds, and in large groups. This could explain how Polynesians were able to find and settle the majority of Pacific Islands.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wilmé |first1=Lucienne |last2=Waeber |first2=Patrick O. |last3=Ganzhorn |first3=Joerg U. |date=February 2016 |title=Marine turtles used to assist Austronesian sailors reaching new islands |journal=Comptes Rendus Biologies |volume=339 |issue=2 |pages=78–82 |doi=10.1016/j.crvi.2015.12.001 |pmid=26857090 |issn=1631-0691|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Also, people of the Marshall Islands used special devices called [[Marshall Islands stick chart|stick charts]], showing the places and directions of swells and wave-breaks, with tiny seashells affixed to them to mark the positions of islands along the way. Materials for these maps were readily available on beaches, and their making was simple; however, their effective use needed years and years of study.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Marshall Islands Stick Chart |last=Bryan |first=E.H. |year=1938 |journal=Paradise of the Pacific |volume=50 |pages=12–13 |issue=7 |url=http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/bryan1938.pdf |access-date=2008-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604091519/http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/bryan1938.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-04}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Geography|Islands|Oceania}}
<!-- {{Wikipedia-Books}} -->
<!-- {{main|Outline of Polynesia|Index of Polynesia-related articles}} -->
<!-- * [[Bibliography of Polynesia]] -->
* [[:Category:Films set in Polynesia|Films set in Polynesia]]
* [[Polynesian narrative]]
* [[Polynesian Society]]
* [[Polynesian Voyaging Society]]
* [[Polynesians]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=William |year=1829 |title=Polynesian Researches, During a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands, Volume 1 |url=https://archive.org/details/polynesianresea10elligoog |publisher=Fisher, Son & Jackson}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=William |year=1829 |title=Polynesian Researches, During a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands, Volume 2 |url=https://archive.org/details/polynesianresea12elligoog |publisher=Fisher, Son & Jackson}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=William |year=1832 |title=Polynesian Researches, During a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands, Volume 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFFEAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR1 |edition=Second |publisher=Fisher, Son & Jackson}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gatty |first=Harold |year=1999 |title=Finding Your Ways Without Map or Compass |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=978-0-486-40613-8}}

==External links==
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}
* {{Commonscatinline}}
*{{Wikisource-inline|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Polynesia|single=true}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501080025/http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1066068.htm Interview with David Lewis] (archived 1 May 2013)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121101004253/http://tritonfilms.com/lewisreview.htm Lewis commenting on ''Spirits of the Voyage''] (archived 1 November 2012)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130717071049/http://www.maori.info/ Useful introduction to Maori society, including canoe voyages] (archived 17 July 2013)
* [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/15/1037080913844.html Obituary: David Henry Lewis—including how he came to rediscover Pacific Ocean navigation methods]

{{Polynesia}}
{{Regions of Oceania}}
{{List of Oceanian capitals by region}}
{{Countries and territories of Oceania}}
{{Culture of Oceania|state=autocollapse}}
{{Regions of the world}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Polynesia| ]]
[[Category:1750s neologisms]]
[[Category:Asia-Pacific]]
[[Category:Islands of Oceania]]
[[Category:Regions of Oceania]]