The countries
and the cultures
In this second
part of our 24 part series we begin to look at the individual
countries that are to be part of our Feast of Pacific Cultures.
Over the next few weeks we will learn more about the islands,
the people and their beliefs, in a quest to recognize our differences,
but more importantly - our similarities.
Australia (55 delegates, 5 VIPs)
 Australia
is a land of remarkable cultural diversity - a vast country encompassing
an entire continent with landscape as distinct as its people.
Topography ranges from tropical rain forests, to white hot deserts,
to snow-capped mountains and surging blue seas.
Australia has
been inhabited since the last Ice Age with the first humans setting
foot there about 70,000 years ago and Aborigines living on the
land for at least 40,000 years. Europeans began traveling to
the continent in the 16th century - Portuguese and Dutch soon
followed by that inveterate explorer who touched most of our
Pacific Islands, Capt. James Cook. He claimed what was then-named
"New South Wales" for the British.
The discovery
of gold in the 1850s brought vast numbers of migrants pushing
"the people who were here from the beginning" (the
literal translation of the word Aborigine) off their tribal lands
in a take over that was to continue until the Aboriginal peoples
were almost entirely displaced.
Formed in 1901,
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federative constitutional
monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The country was in
the news this week when newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
took a giant step forward in ending what has been characterized
as the country's "cultural wars" when he delivered
the long-awaited apology to Australia's Stolen Generations, the
Aboriginal children forcibly taken away from their families during
the 1880s up until the 1970s.
Kevin Rudd has
said sorry for the pain, suffering and hurt of the stolen generations,
their descendants and families left behind. He says the motion
will open a new chapter in the nation's history.
Aborigines remain
the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group, and Rudd
has made improving their lives one of his government's top priorities.
Cook Islands (58 delegates, 2 VIPs)
 Cook
Islanders are Polynesians and are known as Cook Island Maoris,
sharing their ancestry with the Maoris of New Zealand. According
to the oral traditions of both the Cook Islands and New Zealand
Maori people, who share very similar languages, New Zealand was
originally settled by canoe voyagers from Rarotonga. Tradition
also says that the northern islands were probably settled by
expeditions from Samoa and Tonga while Rarotonga was settled
by voyagers from Tupua'i in French Polynesia.
Individuality
between islands is a keynote to the culture and reflects the
vast distances between its 15 islands scattered over a section
of the central South Pacific as big as the Indian sub-continent
and located between French Polynesia and Samoa.
The Cook Islanders
landed on their volcanic islands and coral atolls around 800
AD. They are named after - you guessed it - Capt. James Cook
who landed on and surveyed a number of the islands between 1773
and 1777.
It has been an
independent nation since July 26, 1965 with a parliamentary government
and is a protectorate of New Zealand. The languages are Cook
Island Maori and English.
The Islanders
have preserved much of their culture despite the early decimation
of the population when diseases such as whooping cough, measles,
and smallpox swept through the islands after western contact,
most notably missionaries. However religion is an important part
of life in the Cooks and the churches have had a vital role in
keeping the culture alive and thriving.
The usual greeting
in the Cook Islands is Kia Orana (key-o-rah-na), meaning "Here's
Life" - an apt description for a land that visitors call
the best kept secret in the Pacific.
Federated
States of Micronesia (50 delegates, 3 VIPs)
 Known
around the Pacific as FSM, the Federated States of Micronesia
are culturally and linguistically Micronesian, with a smattering
of Polynesians. The ancestors of the Micronesians settled the
area over 4,000 years ago.
Located northeast
of Papua New Guinea and just north of the equator, tropical FSM
is a sovereign state in free association with the United States.
Special importance
is attached to land in FSM both because of its traditional importance
and its short supply. Made up of four states - Chuuk, Kosrae,
Pohnpei and Yap - the result of volcanic activity millions of
years ago, they are separated by large expanses of water with
each developing over time unique traditions, customs and language,
but there are also common cultural and economic bonds that are
centuries old.
English is the
official language, and there are eight major indigenous languages
of the Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family spoken providing a
rich oral history. Part of this history is a unique musical heritage.
The influence
of their growing tourism industry is also seen as their visitor's
bureau website is in both English and Japanese.
Click
to read part 1 of series
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