![Blood Generation (Sami and the mine, 1- 3), 2009, digital print [Courtesy of Taloi Havini and Stuart Miller]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Image-1-Taloi-Havini-Blood-Generation-Sami-and-the-mine3-1.png?resize=270%2C180)
The people of remote Pacific island battled corporate greed and war on its long road to independence.
![Geographical isolation has helped protect the Pacific Islands from the coronavirus, and governments also closed borders to keep visitors out, recognising the risk the disease poses to their communities [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/6a57014c8e0b4fc89c1ac4288cd8c2cf_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
People in the island nations have some of world’s highest rates of diabetes and obesity, and health systems are weak.
![The waterfront of Bougainville's main town of Buka. The territory is voting in a referendum on independence [Catherine Wilson/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/3e4594087a414c1f852c062596ad4218_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Referendum vote will continue until December 7 amid expectations territory’s 200,000 people will back independence.
![A rally against the treatment of asylum seekers in offshore detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island held in Sydney in 2017 [David Gray/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/b099346f24d947cbbf809520a841bd59_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Critics brand policy ‘failure’ that has destroyed lives as children airlifted to Australia for urgent medical treatment.
![French deputy Philippe Gomes, leader of the pro-France Caledonie Ensemble, speaks at a rally in Noumea [Theo Rouby/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/c44e80481d88464da27fec213932f819_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Paris has governed the Pacific archipelago since 1853, but devolved more autonomy after pro-independence protests.