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In Tahiti and adjacent islands, the term Maohi (Mā’ohi in Tahitian language) refers to the ancestors of the Polynesian peoples. The term can also be a reference to normal, everyday people, just as Māori is accepted among native or indigenous people in New Zealand or the Cook Islands as the way they describe themselves.
Under the terms of Article 74 of the French constitution and the Organic Law 2014–192 on the statute of autonomy of French Polynesia, politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a ...
It contrasts with the terms Petits Blancs (fr) ("Little Whites") and Gros Blancs (fr) ("Big Whites"), which refer to the descendants of earlier European settlers. It is one of the ethnic groups of Réunion, but the term is also used in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the Lesser Antilles, and Mauritius. [2]
The term Polynésie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses, who originally applied it to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a narrower definition during a lecture at the Société de Géographie of Paris.
On 9 September 1842 there was a protectorate treaty signed between Tahitians and the French. The agreement was for the "protection of indigenous property and the maintenance of a traditional judicial system". [17] In 1958 the islands in the area including Tahiti were "reconstituted as a French Overseas Territory and renamed French Polynesia". [18]
There are an estimated 2 million ethnic Polynesians and many of partial Polynesian descent worldwide, the majority of whom live in Polynesia, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. [40] The Polynesian peoples are listed below in their distinctive ethnic and cultural groupings, with estimates of the larger groups provided: Polynesia:
The umbrella terms Pacific Islands and Pacific Islanders may also take on several other meanings. [4] At times, the term Pacific Islands only refers to islands within the cultural regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, [5] [6] and to tropical islands with oceanic geology in general, such as Clipperton Island. [7]
They cover a land area of 1,590 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The Society Islands are a tropical South Sea archipelago of volcanic origin. They represent the most economically important of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia. The highest point is Mount Orohena, which reaches 2,241 meters, located on the island of Tahiti.