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Eastern Indonesia | 3,916,242 [1] |
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According to the official Indonesian law, [2] the Papuans, [2] indigenous Papuans, [2] or native Papuans (the plural anglicisation of Papua or Papwa) are the common native-derived internationalized endonym in Indonesian English for indigenous people of New Guinea residing in the Indonesian part of the Papua island (as opposed to “New Guineans” term coined by the British colonizers). They are closely related to Melanesians and Oceanians (and to some extent, the Australian Aboriginals), who natively inhabited the Eastern Indonesian provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, Southwest Papua, West Papua, South Papua, and Papua in Indonesia (which historically part of the larger Sahul palaeocontinent). The Noken , a traditional knotted or woven bag, an invention of Papuan people, is internationally inscribed as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Papuans natively speak numerous Papuan languages, each with its distinctive and unique linguistic features that are only can be found on the land.
The Papuans are one of the peoples of Indonesia that are protected under the national law by the government of Indonesia, to ensure their stability in economic and development. [2]
Multiple terms have been proposed to describe the native inhabitants of Eastern Indonesia. However, the “Papuans” is the preferred term (especially in Indonesian English), since it is based on actual native nomenclature used by the Native Indonesians as recorded in several ancient native evidences. Its counterparts, such as Melanesians and Oceanians , are also the proposed terms, commonly but not usually overlapping to one another, but its usage limited to and popularized exclusively around the Australia and New Zealand regions (in Australian and New Zealand English terminology). In a sense, the “Papuans” term usage in Indonesian English is similar to “Kiwis” usage in New Zealand English and “Aboriginal Australians” in Australian English.
The Papuans grouped into numerous ethnicities, they possess various cultures and traditions. They are originally tribal community, shared different customs to one another, living in different isolated areas within the region.
According to the official Indonesian national linguistic data, there are at least 428 living Papuan languages (and 37 Papua-based isolate languages) natively spoken by the Papuans in Indonesia alone, [3] making it the most linguistically diverse community in Indonesia. The Papuan languages also spoken beyond its native homeland, such as on Timor Island (which might include the territory of Timor Leste), where sizeable Indonesian Papuan diaspora could be found in the region.
The “Papuan languages” is the native-derived term of Indonesia-origin that unified languages of the Papuans in Indonesia, numerous linguistic study and evidences was thoroughly observed to determine the classification. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the linguistic family that connects between the Papuan languages of Indonesia and New Guinean languages of Papua New Guinea has been proposed by non-Papuan linguists (mainly by the British colonizers), known as the Trans–New Guinea languages, although the classification is rather controvesial and lacks in direct evidences.
The indigenous population of Papua New Guinea is one of the most heterogeneous in the world. Papua New Guinea has several thousand separate communities, most with only a few hundred people. Divided by language, customs, and tradition, some of these communities have engaged in endemic warfare with their neighbors for centuries. It is the second most populous nation in Oceania, with a total population estimated variously as being between 9.5 and 10.1 million inhabitants.
Tok Pisin, often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is an English creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in the country. However, in parts of the southern provinces of Western, Gulf, Central, Oro, and Milne Bay, the use of Tok Pisin has a shorter history and is less universal, especially among older people.
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania or any other island located in the Pacific Ocean.
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship.
The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahul and, much later, a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago. They also left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples.
Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in an area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands. Most speak one of the many languages of the Austronesian language family or one of the many unrelated families of Papuan languages. There are several creoles of the region, such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, and Papuan Malay.
The Indigenous peoples of Oceania are Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and Austronesians. These indigenous peoples have a historical continuity with pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories. With the notable exceptions of Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands, indigenous peoples make up the majority of the populations of Oceania.
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
World Englishes is a term for emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally and analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the world.
Indonesia is home to over 700 living languages spoken across its extensive archipelago. This significant linguistic variety constitutes approximately 10% of the world’s total languages, positioning Indonesia as the second most linguistically diverse nation globally, following Papua New Guinea. The majority of these languages belong to the Austronesian language family, prevalent in the western and central regions of Indonesia, including languages such as Acehnese, Sundanese, and Buginese. In contrast, the eastern regions, particularly Papua and the Maluku Islands, are home to over 270 Papuan languages, which are distinct from the Austronesian family and represent a unique linguistic heritage. The language most widely spoken as a native language is Javanese, primarily by the Javanese people in the central and eastern parts of Java Island, as well as across many other islands due to migration.
Papua New Guinea, a sovereign state in Oceania, is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. According to Ethnologue, there are 840 living languages spoken in the country. In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stated that "Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages ."
The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, or Meganesia to distinguish it from the country of Australia, is located within the Southern and Eastern hemispheres. The continent includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, the island of New Guinea, the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, most of the Coral Sea Islands, and some other nearby islands. Situated in the geographical region of Oceania, Australia is the smallest of the seven traditional continents.
New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the African region of Guinea.
Moluccans are the Austronesian and Ambonese Malay-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the Maluku Islands, Eastern Indonesia. The region was historically known as the Spice Islands, and today consists of two Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku. As such, "Moluccans" is used as a blanket term for the various ethnic and linguistic groups native to the islands.
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania vary, with it being defined in various ways, often geopolitically or geographically. In the geopolitical conception used by the United Nations, International Olympic Committee, and many atlases, the Oceanic region includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea. The term is sometimes used more specifically to denote Australasia as a geographic continent, or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian realm or the Oceanian realm.
The North Halmahera (NH) languages are a family of languages spoken in the northern and eastern parts of the island of Halmahera and some neighboring islands in Indonesia. The southwestern part of the island is occupied by the unrelated South Halmahera languages, which are a subgroup of Austronesian. They may be most closely related to the languages of the Bird's Head region of West Papua, but this is not well-established.
In New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity of France, French is the official and predominant language. The collectivity is also home to about thirty New Caledonian languages, which form a branch of the Southern Oceanic languages. They are spoken mainly by the indigenous Kanaks of the islands.
Mandobo, or Kaeti, is a Papuan language of Mandobo District in Boven Digoel Regency, South Papua, Indonesia.
Oceania is a geographical region with disputed borders but generally encompasses Australia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.