Samoans
Overview
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
n ethnic group of the Samoan Islands
Samoan Islands
The Samoan Islands or Samoa Islands is an archipelago covering in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and the wider region of Oceania...
, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, official name Independent State of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa until country name change in 1997); and American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
, an unincorporated territory of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Samoans living in Samoa in 2006 were estimated at 188,000 The majority of ethnic Samoans now reside in other countries, primarily in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
(115,000 in 2001) and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(39,992 in 2006)
Although the Samoan Natives (Tagata Mao'i) have long claimed to be the indigenous people of their islands, holding firm to the belief that Samoans were birthed by special creation
Special creation
In Creationism, special creation is a theological doctrine which states that the universe and all life in it originated by unconditional fiat or divine decree....
in Samoa, it has been theorized by many linguists and anthropologists, based on linguistic commonalities as well as archaeological findings, that migrants from Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
arrived in the Samoan Islands approximately 3500 years ago, settling in what has come to be known as "Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
" further to the east.
