Just like all of the other inhabited continents, Oceania has a love of sport. Similar to the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, the Pacific Games are held every four years and all nations within Oceania (except for Australia and New Zealand) take part. The Oceania Football Confederation comes under the umbrella of FIFA and is the means for qualification to the World Cup. Cricket is popular in the region and Australia is historically the most successful of all nations at that sport. Australia is also the most successful team in Rugby League, which is the national sport of Papua New Guinea. The national sport in New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga is Rugby Union and Australian Rules Football is popular all over Oceania, though it has failed to gain popularity elsewhere.
Find out a little more about some of the countries in Oceania by playing this quiz about them and their flags.
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New Zealand was formerly a part of the Australian colony New South Wales. It became a separate colony in 1841, a British Dominion in 1907, and fully independent in 1947
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In the centre of the French Polynesian flag is a disc, the bottom half of which depicts the ocean and the top half the sun. Upon the ocean is a Polynesian canoe with a crew of five. The crew represents the five groups of islands which together make up the country
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In 1899 the Samoan Islands were shared between the Americans and the Germans. The German controlled islands were taken by New Zealand during World War One and became a colony until they won their independence in 1962. They are sometimes called Western Samoa to distinguish them from the American controlled islands of the same name
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During the 18th century Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands because of the welcome given to Captain James Cook who arrived during the feast of inasi. Though once under the protection of Great Britain, Tonga has always been a self-governing state
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The flag shows a bald eagle, the symbol of America, clutching a Samoan club and fly-swat. The club represents the Samoan Government and the fly-swat traditional wisdom. The eagle represents the protection given to the islands by the USA
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Captain James Cook visited the islands twice (in 1773 and in 1777) and named them the Hervey Islands. The name Cook Islands was not used until the 1820s when it made its first appearance in a Russian naval chart
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Nauru covers a very small area of just 8.1 square miles (21 square km) making it the third smallest country after the Vatican City and Monaco
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The islands became a British Protectorate during the 19th century. Control was handed over to New Zealand in 1926 and has remained with it ever since. In 1946 the name Tokelau, which means North Wind, was adopted
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The Southern Cross features on a total of five national flags. As well as Papua New Guinea it is also found on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Brazil
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The Solomon Islands are made up of six major islands and over 900 smaller ones
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