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.
Rotuma is a self-governing heptarchy, generally designated a dependency of Fiji. Rotuma commonly referred to Rotuma Island, the only permanently inhabited and by far the largest of all the islands in the Rotuma Group. Officially, the Rotuma Act declares that Rotuma consists of Rotuma Island as well as its neighbouring islands, rocks, and reefs across the entire Rotuma Group. The dependency is situated around 500 km west of the French islands of Wallis and Futuna and a similar distance north of the Fijian mainland. Its capital is Ahau, a hamlet consisting of a number of colonial-era buildings. Rotuma exists as a dependency of Fiji but itself contains its own socioreligious pene-enclave known traditionally as Faguta where the chiefs and their villages adhere to the practices of worship, festival dates, and French-based writing system of the Marists, based at Sumi.
Articles about people, places, things, and concepts related to or originating from Fiji, include:
Fijians are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and English and share a common history and culture.
Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Fäeag Rotuạm, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Indigenous Rotuma people in the South Pacific. Linguistically, as well as culturally, Rotuma has had Polynesian-influence culture and was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony of Fiji in 1881. Contemporary Rotuman is a result of significant Polynesian borrowing, following Samoan and Tongan migrations into Rotuma.
Major-General Jioji Konousi "George" Konrote, is a Fijian politician and retired Major-General of the Fiji Military who served as the President of Fiji from 2015 to 2021. After commanding a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Konrote served as Fiji's High Commissioner to Australia from 2001 to 2006, as Minister of State for Immigration briefly in 2006, and as Minister for Employment Opportunities, Productivity and Industrial Relations from 2014 to 2015. He was the first non-iTaukei president, the first not to be a chief, and the first Seventh-day Adventist to be elected by parliament, as previous presidents were selected by the Great Council of Chiefs.
Gagaja is a Rotuman word denoting the position of "Chief" or "Lord". This could be a formal chiefly position in one of the seven districts or a village chief as well as to anyone else, such as the Chairman of the Rotuma Island Council to whom respect and deference is owed based on their own skills and attributes. Unlike in many other Pacific cultures, the official chiefly positions are not allocated according to any strict primogeniture, but rather are elected from all eligible males within certain kạinaga to whom the chiefly title belongs.
The Rotumans are a Polynesian ethnic group native to Rotuma, an island group forming part of Fiji. The island itself is a cultural melting pot at the crossroads of the Micronesian, Melanesian and Polynesian divisions of the Pacific Ocean, and due to the seafaring nature of traditional Pacific cultures, the indigenous Rotuman have adopted or share many aspects of its multifaceted culture with its Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian neighbours.
Fiji has three official languages under the 1997 constitution : English, Fijian and Fiji Hindi. The Fijian language is spoken as the first language by most indigenous Fijians who make up around 54% of the population.
Samoan literature can be divided into oral and written literatures, in the Samoan language and in English or English translation, and is from the Samoa Islands of independent Samoa and American Samoa, and Samoan writers in diaspora. Samoan as a written language emerged after 1830 when Tahitian and English missionaries from the London Missionary Society, working with Samoan chiefly orators, developed a Latin script based Samoan written language. Before this, there were logologo and tatau but no phonetic written form.
Rugby union in Rotuma is a major sport. Rotuma is a dependency of Fiji, although one with a distinctive culture and language more related to its neighbours in Tonga and Samoa.
The Pacific Music Awards are an annual New Zealand music award ceremony since 2005 that honours excellence in Pacific music in New Zealand. The awards honour musicians who primarily work in the Pacific Island style of music from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau or Tuvalu, and also in urban and gospel genre categories.
Ngaire Fuata is a New Zealand Television producer for TVNZ and a former Pop singer. She is of Rotuman and Dutch descent.
Letila Mitchell is a Rotuman performing artist from Fiji. She is the former director of the Fiji Arts Council and the founder of the Pacific Arts Alliance.
Moana Pasifika is a rugby union team made up of players from various Pacific Island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian born players of Pasifika heritage, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
Solnohu or Sol Nohu, also known as Solnoho, Solnahu and Solnahou, is a small crescent-shaped uninhabited island in the Rotuma Group of Fiji. The island is of special importance in Rotuman and Tongan funerary customs.
The dawn raids were crackdowns in New Zealand from 1973 to 1979 and then sporadically afterward on alleged illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands. The raids were first introduced in 1973 by Prime Minister Norman Kirk's Labour government, who discontinued them in April 1974. However, they were later reintroduced and intensified by Rob Muldoon's Third National government. These operations involved special police squads conducting often aggressive raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand, usually at dawn and almost exclusively directed at Pasifika New Zealanders, regardless of their citizenship status. Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted and then deported back to their countries.
Pasifika New Zealanders are a pan-ethnic group of New Zealanders associated with, and descended from, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands outside of New Zealand itself. They form the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country, after European descendants, indigenous Māori, and Asian New Zealanders. Over 380,000 people identify as being of Pacific origin, representing 8% of the country's population, with the majority residing in Auckland.
Rachael Mario is a Rotuman New Zealand community leader, social worker, and advocate for the Rotuman language. She is Chairperson of the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group. She also helped setup the world's first Rotuman Community Centre in 2020, where language and culture is taught and promoted.
Fijian New Zealanders are persons of Fijian descent or ancestry who reside in New Zealand. Fijians are one of the largest immigrant groups in New Zealand, and Fijian New Zealanders include Fijians of ITaukei, Indo-Fijian, Rotuman, and multiracial heritage. Most Fijian New Zealanders, regardless of ancestry, identify as Pasifika, due to their origins in Oceania, although some Indo-Fijian New Zealanders may identify as Asian New Zealanders. Fiji is the seventh-most common country of birth of immigrants to New Zealand, and in 2023, Fiji was the fifth-most common country of origin of those who immigrated to New Zealand that year.
