The history of Oceania refers to the general history of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Fiji among other Pacific island countries. Among the Oceania cultures, I would prefer to stay in the Tonga culture. The kingdom of Tonga is situated at the west of the International Date Line in the eastern part of Fiji. One factor that makes this culture unique is that it is the only Polynesian country that was never colonized by the Europeans. Additionally, this culture is the only monarchy culture in the Pacific Ocean.  Basically, the fact that this culture was not colonized has not affected its development but rather has helped in maintaining the traditional or historical developments of this culture. A point worth noting is that, the kinship ties of this culture places women at a more privileged position as compared to men which means that a man will be outranked by his sister irrespective of his age in accordance to hers.  As a result of this it becomes a taboo for a man and his sister to be in the same room all alone.

The cultural development of this community has interested many people to study about them. In this case, there have been developments in performing arts especially in poetry, music and dance that have reached a very high level. Additionally, the art of crafting and weapon making has been termed distinctive among the Tongan. Further, the aspect of architecture, agriculture and herbal medicine has been the core of the Tongan ethnoscience traditions.  On the other hand, this culture has developed in terms of physical competitive sports like wrestling, diving, running and javelin throwing. The other reason why I like this culture is the fact that they are well experienced seafarers who have a lot of skills in navigation. It is of importance to note that, the aspects of racism and discrimination are very new to the Tongans. In this case, this has been introduced by those Tongans who leave this culture and travel to other countries with multicultural communities like Australia.

There are many visual arts among the Oceania culture which were distinctive to the different cultures. In this case, the visual arts made have diverse histories among these people. One of the most notable visual arts among these cultures is the canoe. As indicated earlier, most of the Oceania people are best known as seafarers and sea navigators. This concept brought about their experiences in making canoe.  In many cultures like the Tonga, the building of canoe was men’s work.  The art of canoe mostly captures the essence of Oceania because the builders were very much experienced. It should be noted that the Fiji culture was mostly known for building large canoes out of log. Canoes were of different sizes according to their uses. In this case, the simple popaos were dug out canoes that were used by the Tonga for daily use.  The Drua is one type of canoe that is most elaborate and beautiful in the Oceania culture which was originally a product of human sacrifice. Additionally, this canoe was known for its aspects of inspiring fear and awe. In the Oceania culture, there were frequent sea battles that made use of canoe.  It should be noted that, different canoes were used for different purposes an aspect which has attracted a lot of interests in the visual arts of the Oceania culture. A good example is the Camakau canoe of the Fiji which was used for fishing and small transportation purposes. Importantly, almost all the canoes build had similar designs but different sizes and purposes. The most important aspect of canoe building is they indicated a sense of development in the Oceania culture. In times of war the canoes made purposely for war were very helpful bearing in mind that the Oceania cultures were known as best seafarers and navigators.

On the other hand, there are different philosophies and religions of the Oceania people. In this case, different cultures had different religions and philosophies which included; Melanesian, Micronesian, Polynesian, and Aborigine.  I would be interested in practicing the Polynesian religions as it is based on experience but not faith. The Tonga people and the Fiji culture practice this religion. The most interesting information about this religion is the gods and spirits involved in this religion in the human beings who have died and have assumed one or many forms. The aspect of believing in life after death is prominent in this religion where a person shortly before death may visit his/her relatives who pray for his/her soul to have a successful journey to the land of the dead.

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