Oceania

This chapter provides an account of the Bahá’í Faith in Oceania, a region that includes Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. The period to 1953 focuses on the efforts of early travellers and pioneers in Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand and the formation of the national Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand in 1934. The second period, 1953 to 1963, focuses on the systematic spread of the Bahá’í teachings through the Pacific Islands during the ‘World Crusade’, commencing with pioneers, early adherents, and the establishment of the Fiji-based regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific in 1959, from which at least ten additional national Assemblies emerged as their communities expanded and matured. Differences in cultural context have shaped the patterns of growth in Bahá’í communities across the region. The Australian and New Zealand communities have experienced slow growth in societies that are becoming increasingly secular and in which religious belief is regarded as a private matter of little concern to society or the state, unless it threatens the liberal order. In the Pacific Islands, in contrast, religious adherence was viewed in the late twentieth century as a matter for the community as much as for the individual. Due to the small size of most island populations, coupled with more communal ways of life, the presence of Bahá’í communities and their activities have high visibility. Where a majority in a village or district have chosen to become Bahá’ís, their ability to integrate Bahá’í consultation and the calendar into community life has moved forward more rapidly than has been possible in Western towns and cities. Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs have been established in Sydney (1961) and Apia (1984) and others are nearing completion in Tanna (Vanuatu) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea). Bahá’í social and economic development projects are steadily expanding in the region, notably the Ocean of Light School in Tonga and the annual Race Unity Speech contest in New Zealand.