Polynesia
Polynesia is a Pacific region whose islands share historical and cultural connections, generally bounded by Hawaiʻi, New Zealand, and Rapa Nui.
Austronesian expansion: The prehistoric spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples from Taiwan across Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Polynesian settlement was the easternmost phase of this wider movement.
Polynesian Triangle: A geographic convention whose vertices are Hawaiʻi, New Zealand, and Rapa Nui. Its corners define the region's familiar broad outline.
Māori: The Indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa New Zealand, with distinct iwi, languages, and cultural traditions. Māori communities are among the largest societies within the Polynesian region.
Polynesian diaspora: Communities of Polynesian descent living outside their ancestral island homelands. Migration has made Polynesian identities and cultural networks global.
Tapa cloth: A barkcloth made from the inner bark of trees, produced and decorated in many Pacific societies. Its regional forms express shared techniques alongside distinct island designs.
Lapita culture: An archaeological culture of the western Pacific, known for dentate-stamped pottery and linked to early Oceanic expansion. Lapita communities supplied ancestors and cultural foundations for later Polynesian societies.
Oceania: A world region comprising the Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand. Polynesia is one of Oceania's major cultural and geographic regions.
Native Hawaiians: The Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Their history anchors the northern vertex of the Polynesian Triangle.
Polynesian cultural renaissance: A modern revival of Polynesian languages, arts, navigation, and Indigenous political identity. Revitalization movements respond to cultural suppression and strengthen living traditions.
Polynesian tattooing: Indigenous tattooing traditions practiced in distinct forms across Polynesian societies. Tattooing can communicate identity, genealogy, status, and cultural continuity.