Classical depictions of the Pacific: 

EEZ and subregions

Map 1a: Exclusive Economic Zones of Oceania (all units different colours)

This map shows the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Pacific coloured by the top-political authority. It is not the same as territorial waters. Territorial waters relate to jurisdiction, EEZ relate to commercial and other use of resources (fishing, oil, natural gas etc). This map is helpful because it visualises the borders between states more clearly, the Pacific looks less like a vast area with a scattering of land masses and more like a connected space - a sea of islands (Hau'ofa 1994). EEZs are 200 nautical miles from the coast, territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from the coast.  EEZs and Territorial Waters were both defined in the Law of the Sea that the United Nations Convention decided on in 1982. 

Only EEZ within "Oceania" are coloured (hence why West Papua and Papua are separated from the rest of Indonesia etc).

Top-political unit here is defined by citizenship and foreign policy.

Even more details on the old page, here.

Citation

Skirgård, Hedvig & CartoGIS at the College of Asia-Pacific at the Australian National University (2019) Map of Exclusive Economic Zones of Oceania. Distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA License.

Please include this information if using this map in publication or teaching:

Skirgård, Hedvig & CartoGIS at the College of Asia-Pacific at the Australian National University (2020) Map of Exclusive Economic Zones of Oceania. Distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA License. Published in Skirgård, H. (2020). Multilevel dynamics of language diversity in Oceania. PhD Dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University.

Map 1b: Exclusive Economic Zones of Oceania (colours highlight OECD-power)

This map is a version of 1a, with the difference that the colour scheme is highlighting which places are currently under the jurisdiction of a OECD country.

Map 2: Subregions of Oceania: Melanesia/Polynesia/Micronesia & Near and Remote Oceania. 

This map shows the regions of Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia and Near Oceania and Remote Oceania. The division of Oceania into Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia may be more widely known to the public, but it also has a problematic colonial past and disputed borders. Near/Remote Oceania are regions defined by flora and fauna distributions and history instead.

The South Pacific can be divided up in many different ways, Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia is an old division that dates back to western colonisers in the 17-1800's. Naturally, the people who lived there then didn't divide up the world in this manner. The distinction of Near/Remote Oceania was suggested by Green & Pawley in 1973 and is primarily concerned with the ecological zones of flora and fauna. Compared to Polynesia/Melanesia/Micronesia, the distinction Near/Remote Oceania better illustrates shared ecological zones, pre-colonial history and archaeology. Near Oceania is an area of the world that has been inhabited by humans for a long time, in fact it's one of the first areas to be peopled after the expansion out of Africa. There's been people in Near Oceania for 40-60,000 years. The region of Remote Oceania is a much more recent discovery by humans: 3-4,000 years. The fact that this is a more recently settled region than Near Oceania is reflected in the languages, cultures and archeological artefacts found there. Remote Oceania was entirely dominated by people speaking Austronesian languages and the archeological remains are more recent. There is no evidence of non-Austronesian people inhabiting Remote Oceania before the arrival of Austronesian people.

Even more details on the old page, here. 

Please include this information if using this map in publication or teaching:

Skirgård, Hedvig & CartoGIS at the College of Asia-Pacific at the Australian National University (2020) Map of Subregions of Oceania: Melanesia/Polynesia/Micronesia & Near and Remote Oceania. Distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA License. Published in Skirgård, H. (2020). Multilevel dynamics of language diversity in Oceania. PhD Dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University.

Our Sea of Islands

Map 3: Islands in Oceania grouped by Marck's overnight voyage distances.

This map of the Pacific groups landmasses by "overnight voyage distances", as suggested by Jeffrey Marck (1986 & 2000), with languages mapped out as points coloured by language families. The idea is that a sailing voyage of 100 miles or less is a reasonable overnight voyage for a medium skilled navigator. Of course people travelled much further than this (how else was Hawai'i found?), but that these medium voyages were more common and were important in forming communities. Marck suggested that this represents a more useful way of understanding pre-colonial islands groups in the Pacific compared to EEZs and countries as it connects islands and atolls that are more likely to be in more regular contact. In Micronesia and Polynesia, these groups line up rather well with linguistic boundaries, but this is not the case in Melanesian Remote Oceania. 

This map displays Pasifika place names wherever it was possible. Please note, many indigenous place-names have been forgotten or it is unclear what islands precisely they refer to. Sometimes a place-name has also been used to refer to more than one place. This is not an authoritative map of indigenous place-names of the Pacific. We have used non-western names that have an association with a given place as often as possible to shift the viewers perspective away from European ships, commanders, customs etc and towards a more localised viewpoint. That hasn't always been easy, and some place-names are not agreed upon. If you see something that isn't right, please go here.

Even more details on the old page, here.

Please include this information if using this map in publication or teaching:

Skirgård, Hedvig & CartoGIS at the College of Asia-Pacific at the Australian National University (2020) Map of Oceania with islands grouped by Marck's overnight coyage distances and Pasifika names. Distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA License. Published in Skirgård, H. (2020). Multilevel dynamics of language diversity in Oceania. PhD Dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University.

Map 4b: regions of Near and Remote Oceania

The location and language families of languages are based on Glottolog 3.0 with some adjustments based on Alexandre Francois' maps of Vanuatu and LACITO-CNRS' map of New Caledonia, and comments from the public reviews (see specific people in acknowledgments below). Basic language classification (what is a language and what is a dialect) is taken from Glottolog 3.0. 

Map 5: map 3 with language names of Remote Oceania. 

Names and locations of languages mostly taken from Glottolog (3.0), with some adjustments based on Alexandre Francois' maps of Vanuatu and LACITO-CNRS' map of New Caledonia, and comments from the public reviews (see specific people in acknowledgments below). Basic language classification (what is a language and what is a dialect) is taken from Glottolog 3.0. 

Please see the description of map 3 for the basemap details (e.g. place-names).

Even more details on the old page, here.

Please include this information if using this map in publication or teaching:

Skirgård, Hedvig & CartoGIS at the College of Asia-Pacific at the Australian National University (2020) Map of Oceania with islands grouped by Marck's overnight coyage distances and Pasifika names, with language names of Remote Oceania. Distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA License. Published in Skirgård, H. (2020). Multilevel dynamics of language diversity in Oceania. PhD Dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University.

Cost-surface adjusted maps

An improvement of Marck's concept of 100 miles straight from the coast as a measurement of overnight distances is to adjust these distances for travel-costs, i.e. wind and current patterns. Furthermore, we know that some of the atolls and islands did not in fact exist until fairly recently. This has large consequences for inter-island connections, naturally, and probably in particularly in Tuamotu.

The next step for these maps would be to make several different versions for different configurations of wind, currents and landmasses at different points in time. I have started on this work together with geographers Michael Zurmühle, Ursin Maurus Beeli and Peter Ranacher of the University of Zürich.

Map 6: island grouped based on cost-surface modelling

Changes logged so far 

EEZ territory assignment map 1a and 1b (based on Lorenz Gonschor)

        mark Olohenga as disputed between USA and New Zealand (Tokelau)

        re-consider devision to mark COFA states in Micronesia as not-USA and/or make clear that top-political unit is based on citizenship and/or foreign policy

EEZ marking of non Oceania (map 1b)

(note, map 1b was not used in any publication and therefore has not been updated given feedback)

       either also mark Alaska, Puerto Rico etc as USA or remove marking for all non-Oceania EEZs

        depending on decision on previous issue, either remove colouring from Clipperton or not

       1b is lagging behind 1a in that the Japanese islands aren't included as they should be (given the Pacific plateau definition of the western boundary of Oceania)

Place names map 3 & 4

insert disclaimer in map that states that says that the names are not authoritative and may contain errors

inverted comma instead of apostrophe for glottal stops

label two more islands in Southern Hawaiʻ specificallyi: Kahoʻolawe and Lānaʻi

investigate Mata Ki Eirangi for "Pitcairn". The label came from Father Louis Jacques Laval, via Diego Muñoz, but could also be referring to other places

Acknowledgements 

There are many people who have helped us to make these maps. I would like to thank members of the ASAONET mailing list and Facebookers from the group "Maps of the Pacific". 

Special thanks goes to

• Emily Donaldson 

• Don Rubinstein 

• Diego Muñoz

• Apo Aporosa

• Michael Goldsmith

• John Lynch

• Charles Langlas

• Hilário De Sousa

• Jonathan Schlossberg

• Sally Akevai Te Namu Nicholas

• Jeffrey Marck

• Myjolynne Marie Kim

• Alexander François

• Lorenz Gonschor

• Mary Walworth

• Marianne “Mimi" George

• Sylvia C Frain

• Matthew Spriggs

• Oliver Sheehan

• Joseph Watts

• Ritsuko Kikusawa

• Takuya Nagaoka

• Nick Thieberger

• Liam Kokaua

• James Flexner

• Tom Dougherty

• Ash Sablan

• Travis B. Wells

• Léuli Eshraghi

• Angela Cincotta-Segi

• Keith Chambers

• Andrew Pawley

Fa'afetai tele lava!