Who is Black? Striking Images of the World’s Dark-Skinned People Inaccurately Considered Non-Black
Indigenous Australians and People of Oceania
from the Atlanta Blackstar
By now it’s evident that Africa is not the only place on earth that has indigenous Black people. Australia and the islands of Oceania also have indigenous Black people that populated the area. Oceania is a large region of the world that includes thousands of Pacific islands, including the areas of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.
The “First” Out of Africa migration, circa 60,000 B.C, saw Blacks with straight hair, taking a route along the coast of Asia, and then “Island hopping” across the Indian Ocean to New Guinea around 50,000 BC, continuing the southward expansion into Australia and Tasmania around 40,000 BC.
The ancestral Austronesian peoples are believed to have arrived considerably later, approximately 3,500 years ago, as part of a gradual seafaring migration from Southeast Asia, possibly originating in Taiwan. These Austronesian-speaking peoples ranged in skin color from light to dark. Some mixed with the black skinned Papuan speaking aborigines to give rise to the Melanesian people that later spread eastward all the way to the Fiji Islands and even to Hawaii.
Despite having their numbers decreased due to miscegenation with and extermination by various Asians and European invaders, a significant Black population still exists in Oceania. Unsurprisingly, however; are still being classified outside of the Black race.
Take a look at some of the faces from this part of the world.
