Page 25 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

and the East of our country is also important to note down. Aren’t big islands located in
the Western part, such as Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan but surrounded by small islands?
Isn’t the Eastern part mostly dominated by relatively small islands? Not less important is—
although in the historical dynamics the mixture has happened, but generally it can be said
that, if the Western part is dominated by the Austronesian descendants then the Eastern
part is by the Melanesians.
If the story or to be exact the academic reconstruction effort of the formation process
of geographical region has been discussed then it means the efforts to review the story
of thousands of years of geological history shall also be reviewed. Based on the result of
academic reconstruction on the age and the growth of geographical region, Sumatra, Java
and Kalimantan originally were part of Asia continent. But tens of thousands of years ago
when the iced age passed by, the islands started to separate themselves. Hundreds years
afterwards, the inhabiting process of some part of these separated islands commenced.
The Initial Modern People—Australomelanesians—had started to enter the islands which
are now called as Indonesia. Although they—the ancient people—were still living in the
caves and seemed to have used stone tools. It was around 4,000-3,000 years before Anno
Domine or—known right now as B.P. (Before Present)—the Austronesian element, which
had been mixed with the Mongoloid element, came over through two paths of the West
path—from the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan, and the East path to
Taiwan, Philippines to Sulawesi and Kalimantan. When the Austronesian groups had started
to inhabit in this region then the Australomelanesian groups (the ancestors of Melanesia)
started to leave the Western part of Indonesia. However, it could also be predicted—as
shown by a few hills—the mixture between some elements of the two races did take place.
If the situation should be extreme then it could be said that the sub-race of Melanesia of
Australomelanesia inhabited the Eastern part and continued to the region now known as
Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean; in the meantime the Austronesian race more inhabited the
Western part of Indonesia. However, the spread of Austronesia to the Eastern part also
took place—the Northern part of Papua and the surrounding islands and even there were
those who kept moving to some islands in the region now called as Melanesia. It was just,
as a scientist (Paul Silltoe) once said in one of his writings, “not easy to determine exactly
whether based on geography, culture, biology or anything, when Melanesia started over
and the neighboring region … ended”.
But in general, it can be said that Fiji, Papua, New Guinea, Solomon, Vanuatu and New
Caledonia (France’s property) are included in the Melanesian region. All of these are outside

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