Oceania has a sizeable portion of lands and waters still under colonial or non-native powers, but in the past, the entirety of it was held by superpowers like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and then the United States and New Zealand.

After the World War II, independence and sovereignty were granted to the territories, one by one: from the NZ-held Samoa in 1962, to the USA-held Palau in 1994. This decolonisation process is still ongoing: the continent has 21 countries (two non-sovereign and including Brunei, Indonesia, Bornean Malaysia, Philippines and Timor-Leste) and 27 dependencies (18 external and 19 internal). Not all of the latter are planning to secede (e.g., Japan’s Ogasawara prefecture, Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, Chile’s Juan Fernández Islands, and certain Australian and American territories), but we can observe movements of independence and sovereignty in certain dependencies, aiming for self-determination of seats in the United Nations.

For Victoria “Lola” León Guerrero, co-chairperson of the Commission on Decolonization Independence Task Force in Guam, one of the Pacific dependencies, independence “means is we make all our own decisions. Sovereignty really essentially means we reign. We make all decisions that impact us today and into the future”. But certain forces– notably the USA, NZ, France and Chile– withhold these two from the locals seeking for such.

One of which New Caledonia (Kanaky), a special collectivity of the French Republic, but now it has been holding a series of independence referendums, in accordance with the Nouméa Accord of 1998: the first one in 2018, then two more (2020 and 2022) if the preceding one fails to have the “yes” vote won. The first referendum had a 57% : 43% no-yes ratio, letting the second one proceed this day. But demographics plays a big role: the vast majority who voted for independence was Kanak, the indigenous peoples of the territory.

With the referendum ongoing, let us visit other current Oceanian movements for independence and sovereignty, and how they are doing today:

Cook Islands

Two territories in Polynesia are considered countries: Cook Islands and Niue, but they are not considered sovereign– despite their governments handle their internal affairs (excludes foreign affairs and defence), their citizens are also NZ citizens; they are considered States in Free Association with New Zealand, and do not have seats in the UN.

Cook Islands became a protectorate of the UK in 1888 in order to prevent a French invasion, which had taken over its eastern neighbours like Tahiti, the Tuamotus and the Marquesas among others (forming French Polynesia). Responsibility over the territory was passed to its bigger Māori neighbour in 1965.

Cook’s then-prime minister Henry Puna revived discussions with political allies and oppositors in 2015 on prospects of a sovereign Cooks, talking if they were willing to surrender NZ citizenship for a UN seat. But NZ’s then-PM Helen Clark expressed reservations and warned of costly consequences for proceeding to independence, though saying that NZ will not stop the territory from doing so. The possibility may not be met with popularity, but is not ruled out.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

Behaviour in the Chilean special municipality of Rapa Nui, popularly known as Easter Island, is starkly different from the Cooks. The territory was annexed to Chile in 1888, but it being in Polynesia helped being given a special status. Nevertheless, many in the native Rapa Nui population have not given its wishes of regaining sovereignty up. Clashes with security forces occurred in December 2010 after a land dispute, drawing condemnation even from the Tahitian pro-independence Tāvini Huira’atira party. Plans for a marine park around the island was also challenged by indigenous activists last 2016.

With an aim to call for Chile protect the welfare and rights of the Rapa Nui people, in 2017, indigenous Annette Rapu Zamora attempted to get representation for the 7th District in Valparaíso region in Chile’s House of Representatives; her victory would help bring the discussion of Rapa Nui’s secession to the table. She, however, failed to win a seat.

French Polynesia

Between the Cooks and Rapa Nui are their close relative French Polynesia, consisting of Tahiti and the Societies, the Tuamotus and Gambier Archipelago, the Australs, and the Marquesas Islands. France took control over the groups of islands from the mid-19th Century to around 1900.

Tāvini Huira’atira, led by Oscar Manutahi Temaru, is one of the leading groups in the eastern Polynesian independence movement. It called for reinstating the region back to the UN’s List of Non-Self-Governing Territories, which is reviewed annually for the areas’ application to Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples; such call was answered and fulfilled in May 2013, despite French resistance. But its demands for a referendum like the one in New Caledonia tend to be rejected by the central government.

Unlike New Caledonia, which is a special collectivity, French Polynesia is only a French overseas country/collectivity, having a lower level of autonomy.

Guam (Guåhan)

North of the Polynesian territories, in Micronesia, lies the southern Mariana island of Guam (or Guåhan in Chamoru), an unincorporated and organised American territory. Along with the Philippines and other islands of western Micronesia, it was part of the Spanish East Indies until the Spanish-American war; it was ceded to the United States in 1899.

Being an unincorporated territory, the American constitution is not in full effect in Guåhan, nor do Guamanians have both representation in the House of Representatives and equal rights to vote as mainland Americans do. This status prompts some locals to seek for independence, or other options like statehood, in order to gain powers like increased control over internal affairs and voting powers. The presence of American troops in the geopolitically strategic island, which is near regions like China, Korea and Japan, exacerbates the need for a change in the territory’s political status. Lola León Guerrero, an independence advocate, argues that independence and sovereignty do not mean the removal of American bases and non-Chamoru population, but would be more beneficial for the island.

In July 2019, a federal appeals court ruling barred native Guamanians from voting, claiming it was illegally based on race. Last May, the USA Supreme Court backed the ruling after rejecting Guåhan’s request for a writ of certoriari (a review of a ruling by a lower-level agency/court) in the 2011 federal case (filed by Arnold Davis, a Guamanian). Independence activists condemned the decision, but vowed to continued the fight for more voting powers and self-determination.

Hawai’i


Residents of the town of Anahola in Kaua’i, Hawai’i wave the flag of the Kingdom of Hawai’i, now also used as the State flag. Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/ The Washington Post.

I have previously wrote for independence and sovereignty for the state of Hawai’i, which is, unlike Guam, a fully incorporated territory– an American state. The Kingdom of Hawai’i, related to the Māori of NZ, the Cooks, French Polynesia was overthrown by a foreign coup in 1893, and the United States took over five years later. This coup that expelled Queen Lili’uokalani was declared illegal after the approval of the Apology Bill in 1993.

Yet Native Hawai’ians do not feel treated as the territory’s own people, as they are the only indigenous group in the United States who do not have political sovereignty, despite the approval of the Akaka Bill which aims to do so. In November 2015, delegates were elected for a constitutional convention to uphold such sovereignty. Forming an own constitution would help Native Hawai’ians increase their political power, but others want total independence and sovereignty, aiming a UN seat and restoring a lost nation.

Northern Mariana Islands

Going back to Micronesia, Guåhan’s northern neighbour, the Northern Marianas, is also an unincorporated and organised territory of America. It crossed a different road, though– Spain ceded the island chain to Germany in the same year Guåhan was to USA (1899). Japan took the archipelago after its conflict with Germany in World War I, and after its defeat the Second World War, the UN trusted the USA to handle the region, but poverty was rampant.

Vicente Santos and Pete Tenorio were two of the people who negotiated for giving the territory a Commonwealth status in 1976 after the southern neighbour rejected unification. The trust territory of Northern Marianas was incorporated into America, though not fully but as a Commonwealth; this marked the different fates of Guåhan and now-CNMI. But like the former, Northern Mariana Islanders do not have equal voting powers with mainland Americans nor proper representation at Congress. Oscar Rasa, a fellow of Santos and Tenorio at the negotiating committee, rejected surrendering sovereignty and refused to move on, observing America’s encroachment in the territory’s affairs.

Unlike in Guåhan, many Northern Mariana Islanders are yet to form an independence movement, but they might realise this need.

Unifying Samoa

Returning to Polynesia, the archipelago of 13 islands was halved by superpowers UK, Germany and USA. The Tripartite Treaty of 1899 gave Germany the West, and in 1900, USA acquired the East. The former lost its Samoa to NZ during WWI, but it gained independence in 1962. The East, however, remained in American hands. Western Samoa changed its name to simply Samoa; this was considered by its eastern counterpart as imposition of authority of the former over the latter.

American Samoans are not considered as “US citizens”, but as “noncitizen US nationals”; like Guåhan and CNMI, American Samoa is an unincorporated and organised American territory. But many people there do not opt for citizenship, fearing an attack against their already-established culture and governing system (Fa’amatai or matai (clan head) system) and a fate Native Hawai’ians received. But they wouldn’t have sovereignty and independence. Unifying Samoa (or Samoas) is an option for them.

But the Independent State’s PM Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi eschews the prospects of unifying the East with the West; “in today’s world you have to look at where you can benefit the most, and American Samoa will not get anything by joining up with us again”, he said in a 2017 speech, despite considering calls of some Samoans for such move. Malielegaoi prefers American Samoa to be still separate if it aims for independence.

Other territories and secessionist movements in already-independent nations


Voters fall in line in a polling station in Buka, Bougainville to vote for independence for the autonomous region in Papua New Guinea, which was held from 23 November to 07 December 2019. Photo by Asahi Shimbun/ Getty Images, via the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter.

Smaller territories like Niue, Tokelau (both NZ), Wallis and Futuna (France) and Pitcairn Island (UK) have far smaller or even no sovereignty movements, as these are heavily reliant on governments handling them; Pitcairn’s population is 43 as of January 2020, according to the official newsletter The Pitcairn Miscellany.

Secessionist movements in other countries also exist. One of the most active is in Western Papua in Indonesia, considered as part of Melanesia. Netherlands was supposed to give independence to the region as it had to Indonesia, but the latter annexed West Papua in 1963; the region had turned into a conflict zone since. The latest major issue was a crackdown against protesting Papuans in August 2019. Papuans, being Melanesians, were also affected by the Black Lives Matter protests as African Americans and Indigenous Australians were, and the independence issue was highlighted by activist groups like Benny Wenda’s United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). Vanuatu is one of the movement’s top allies, irking Indonesia.

Solomon Islands’ Malaita province has independence movements gaining momentum, threatening the country after its switch of diplomatic relations from RO China to PR China. The state of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is to hold an independence referendum in 2022, despite opposition from the country and USA. Banaba Island in Kiribati also has its independence movement, as it perceives exploitation by the country due to its own high phosphate reserves and status being the only island (the rest are atolls), while being neglected by the government.

An independence movement that has gained significant progress is that of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. In December last year, the vast majority of voters (98.31% with 87.59% turnout) voted for independence, striking a big blow to PNG. Due to this result, Jonathan Pryke, the Pacific Islands programme director of the Australian think-tank Lowy Institute, noted that the country would find it hard to extend negotiations for Bougainville’s independence.

While being independent and sovereignty, NZ is experiencing an increasing influence of Māori nationalism, as changes on state symbols are discussed in the government and public. A flag contest was held in 2015, with entries from uniquely NZ symbols to ridiculous memes. The winning entry was put in a referendum the following year, only for it to be rejected. The Māori Party created its language (te reo Māori) policy, advocating for changing NZ’s official name to the native Aotearoa among other changes, but last month, Deputy PM Winston Peters dismissed the calls as “headline hunting“, though current PM Jacinda Ardern finds increasing interchangeability of the country’s English and Māori names “a positive thing”. Changes even in symbols like names, coats of arms and flags from colonial to native are also part of the decolonisation process, restoring damaged native and indigenous influences of the lands’ own cultures to their original states.

Recommendations for the movements

Self-determination movements tend to face numerous challenges, such as convincing countries holding their territories and their allies that could provide financial aid, future diplomatic relations therewith, and the territories’ future economies after successful secession. Their dreams shall have their benefits and risks calculated: will independence and sovereignty be more helpful for the peoples’ welfare– both quality of life and self-identity?

The movements have different choices: they can be fully incorporated into holding states (but the cases of Hawai’i and Rapa Nui prove this able to be detrimental), become associated states (the cases of Palau, FSM and Marshall Islands are that they’re associated to the USA yet are sovereign, having UN seats), or are fully independent and sovereign.

Awareness on national identity has also to be increased among locals; New Caledonia’s Kanaks are well-aware of it, but convincing non-Kanak peoples is a challenge they need to address. Northern Mariana locals may also learn from other peoples in strengthening their national identity. Solidarity among these movements is also a helpful factor for reinforcing one another; the Bougainvillean referendum’s results have helped bolster the Kanak and West Papuan movements, and French Polynesian independence activists’ support for their Rapa Nui counterparts help the latter get more inspired to continue.

Generally, I support the self-determination movements in the Pacific, for upholding the welfare of the region’s locals. These are not actually harmful for the bigger nations; in fact, stronger relations between these peoples can be formed. Humility, forgiveness and reconciliation all help in moving nations forward.

Cook Islands can create a new visa/immigration regime with NZ/Aotearoa and negotiate with it on a new citizenship policy, and it can aim for a Palau-like status to have both association and sovereignty. Rapa Nui can do the same, or annex itself with French Polynesia and support the Tahitian independence movement, in case its people foresee an uncertain future. America-held territories can campaign to mainland Americans on benefits of their independence and sovereignty to the Mainland. I see their advocacies can help in achieving friendly relations, global progress, and sustainable development.

What I only hope is that these movements will gain success in moving the hearts of those who control their regions, and that the latter will realise they will actually not be the losers but gain from listening to and addressing the movements’ demands. A decolonised Oceania would lead humankind to a brighter future.

Article posted on 04 October 2020, 15:04 (UTC +08:00).