Comparison: Pacific Island Forum and other terms

The terms Pacific Island Forum and Oceania entails approximately the same territories but there is a distinction in the nature of the terms.

The Pacific Islands Forum refers to a political and economic intergovernmental organization that includes Australia, New Zealand and small states established in the pacific islands.

Oceania, on the other hand, refers to a geographic entity that includes most of the islands of the Pacific, except what is considered Southeast Asia and some other islands belonging to Asian or American countries such as Hawaii or the Easter Island. These islands may be geographically distant from Australia but the culture of is native people is more similar to those of the Polynesia than to the pre-Columbian civilizations of America. A much wider definition refers to Oceania as any island situated in the Pacific Ocean but this definition clashes with the consensus of referring to some islands as Asian (f.e. Japan). In the same way, some scholars consider also the Malay Archipelago as part of Oceania arguing that the group of islands are part of the Australian continental shelf.

This is important because in this terminology there is a contradiction between geographical and cultural arguments. For example, the whole island of New Guinea is geographically considered as part of the Malay Archipelago and therefore part of Southeast Asia, but the republic of Papua New Guinea, which takes about half the island, is part of the Pacific Island Forum and it seems that the identity is population is rather “oceanic or part of the Pacific”.

In the same sense, it is important to point out, The Pacific Islands Forum has somehow incorporated the term Pacific as the demonym for the region but the Pacific Ocean itself is much wider geographical area.

Another term with which the Pacific Island Forum is often identified is Australasia. This term was first used as a synonym of Oceania (in the sense that it refers to Australia and its continental shelf) but it was later used to talk about the union of New Zealand and Australia which were considered by many scholars as very similar due to its English language, its developed economy, its economic weight on the region and its past as colonial territories of European powers. However, the term is not frequently used, and it is mostly unpopular in New Zealand because the name emphasizes only Australia.