The Polynesian Triangle:
from North down to South East and South West
The Polynesian Triangle is a triangle-like area of the Pacific Ocean located in Oceania covering an area of approximately 800,000 square miles with three groups of islands at its corners: Hawai’i, New Zealand and Rapa Nui which is part of Chile. Within this triangle there are many other islands such as Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna, Niue and French Polynesia. The Polynesian Triangle is usually a term describing Polynesia.
What shaped this triangle were the migrations of the first Polynesian people who established themselves in Samoa roughly around eight-hundred BC based off archeological evidence. The natives then dispersed and settled in New Zealand, Hawaii, Rapa Nui and many other islands between 1190 and 1290 BC that would then become independent nations with their own cultures, languages and populations.
That’s why the Polynesian Triangle is the home of a diversity of ancestral cultures that is important to preserve today.
So here is a presentation of Hawaï in English, Rapa Nui in Spanish, of New Zealand in English and finally ’our fenua’ in French located in the middle of this Polynesian triangle.
