Pacific Islander and Maori populations in Queensland

Pacific Islander and Maori populations in Queensland

Pacific Islander people is the collective term for migrants to Australia from the island groups of:

• Micronesia (the Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia and Polynesia)
• Melanesia (including Papua New Guinea, the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands)
• Polynesia (New Zealand, Niue, the Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, the Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Easter Island).

Despite often being grouped together in this way, populations from these different regions are heterogeneous with diverse cultures, languages and religions.

It is important to distinguish between Pacific Islander people and Australian South Sea Islander people. Pacific Islander people are migrants to Australia, whereas Australian South Sea Islander people are the Australian-born descendants of predominantly Melanesian people who were brought to Queensland as indentured labourers, between 1863 and 1904. Australian South Sea Islander people originate from eighty different Pacific islands, primarily Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.