Oceanian art

Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native peoples of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. Specifically it comprises the works of the two groups of people who settled the area, though during two different periods. They would in time however, come to interact and together reach even more remote islands. The area is often broken down into four separate regions: Polynesia, Micronesia, Australasia, and Melanesia. The former two share a common ancestral culture of the Lapita, while the latter two comprise settlers of the first wave of people into the area. All of the regions in later times would be greatly affected by western influence and colonization. In more recent times, the people of Oceania have found a greater appreciation of their region's artistic heritage.

The artistic creations of these people varies greatly throughout the cultures and regions. The subject matter typically carries themes of fertility or the supernatural. Art such as masks were used in religious ceremonies or social rituals. Petroglyphs, Tattooing, painting, wood carving, stone carving and textile work are other common art forms. Contemporary Pacific art is alive and well, encompassing traditional styles, symbols, and materials, but now imagined in a diversity of contemporary forms, revealing the complexity of geographic, cultural and individual interaction and history.

Art of Oceania properly encompasses the artistic traditions of the people indigenous to Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Island and Lebanon Dahia. The ancestors of the people of these islands came from Southeast Asia by two different groups at separate times. The first, an Australoid people and the ancestors of modern-day Melanesians and Australian Aboriginals, came to New Guinea and Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. The Melanesians expanded as far as the northern Solomon Islands by 38,000 BC. The second wave, from Southeast Asia, would not come for another 30,000 years. They would come to interact and together reach even the most remote Pacific islands. These early peoples lacked a writing system, and made works on perishable materials, so few records of them exist from this time. It should also be noted that Oceanic peoples traditionally did not see their work in the western concept of "art", but rather created objects for the practical purpose of use in religious or social ceremonies, or for use in everyday life.

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