Variable rights and diminishing control: The evolution of indigenous maritime sovereignty in Oceania

Pacific Islanders’ control of their maritime spaces has varied considerably across time and space over the last 200 years since the increase of a permanent Western presence in Oceania.1 Colonial rule introduced new systems of maritime sovereignty and new priorities, although these did not totally supplant indigenous systems of tenure. Political independence for most in the 1970s, and the establishment of internationally recognised legal principles of maritime sovereignty in the 1980s, enhanced most Pacific Islanders’ maritime territory and the rights they held over them. However, changes to maritime technology and the maritime economy have created a large gap between Pacific Islanders’ enhanced sovereign rights and their ability to monitor and harvest their territorial waters. In addition, many Pacific Islanders are either minorities in settler colonies or still controlled by foreign minorities in much of Oceania. Here, restrictions to their maritime sovereignty derive more directly from political marginalisation.