AD 1950-2000

For most of the western Pacific the period AD 1950-2000 was one of rapid change and decolonisation. Most islands in this in region became independent by 1980: New Guinea became Papua New Guinea in 1975; the Solomon Islands became an independent constitutional monarchy in 1978; and the New Hebrides became the Republic of Vanuatu in 1980. Only New Caledonia retains something like its former colonial status, as a French overseas territory.

Despite this period of change, or perhaps because of it, the peoples of the region have continued to explore and celebrate their cultural and ethnic differences as distinct island peoples, with diverse traditions and languages. They have explored their new nationhood, and their new status as citizens through art, music and dance, and very occasionally through violence. Western Pacific contemporary art draws upon traditional styles and practice to create new ways of being traditional.

The image of the Pacific islands in the European and Western imagination as a kind of paradise has provided a constant stream of tourists, which though welcome as a much needed source of income, have contributed to the accelerating rate of change in the islands.