AD 1950-2000

This period saw rapid change across Oceania. In Australia, Indigenous people gained voting and citizenship rights in the AD 1960s, and in the 1970s successfully challenged their differential treatment under the law. Recognition of the importance of beginning a process of reconciliation came as a result of the ‘Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’ in 1991, and the ‘National Enquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families’ in 1997. Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been declared a key national objective by the Australian Parliament.

In Melanesia and Polynesia through the 1960s, 70s and 80s almost all the former colonies gained their independence. The French alone retained their possessions – as French overseas territories. The United States continues to maintain military bases and to exercise control over a number of the islands through various pacts and dependency agreements.

Despite the growth of tourism, the ever-increasing movement of peoples, and the development of new, urban environments, the peoples of Oceania have continued to explore and celebrate their cultural and ethnic differences as distinct peoples, with diverse traditions and languages. Through art, music and dance, contemporary Oceania draws upon traditional styles and practice to create new ways of being traditional.