Polynesia: Did you mean...?

Map showing the Polynesian Triangle and some of its islands.

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French neo-impressionist painter whose vivid paintings with their flat, bold colours and use of mystical and ambiguous symbols revolutionised art. Never quite gaining success in his own lifetime...

Te Papa Tongawera (or simply Te Papa) is New Zealand's innovative national museum situated near the foreshore of beautiful Wellington harbour. Te Papa Tongawera means “container of treasures” in Te Reo Maori, which is the indigenous language...

The hei tiki is a small personal adornment, fashioned by hand from tough pounamu (New Zealand greenstone or nephrite jade), and is worn around the neck. Hei means something looped around the neck, and tiki is a generic word used throughout...

Menehune is the term applied to short-statured, forest-dwelling creatures of Hawaiian mythology and is part of a common mythology throughout Polynesia that describes secretive, supernatural beings with human-like attributes. Mysterious supernatural...

An 1893-4 oil on canvas, Self-portrait with Manao Tupapau, by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), the French post-impressionist painter. The artist painted this while in Paris where he was attempting to exhibit his works painted in Polynesia. In the...

An 1892 oil on burlap mounted on canvas, Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Watching), by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) the French post-impressionist painter. Painted in Polynesia, the artist considered this one of his most important works...

Ymir is a primordial giant, closely linked to the creation myth and the beginning of the world in Norse mythology. A creature resulting from the dramatic encounter between ice and fire, he was fed by a cosmic cow and his body parts served...

From a humble beginning as a sweet treat grown in gardens, sugar cane cultivation became an economic powerhouse, and the growing demand for sugar stimulated the colonization of the New World by European powers, brought slavery to the forefront...

Polynesian navigation of the Pacific Ocean and its settlement began thousands of years ago. The inhabitants of the Pacific islands had been voyaging across vast expanses of ocean water sailing in double canoes or outriggers using nothing...