Baháʼí Faith in Oceania

Baháʼí Houses of Worship are present in Australia, Samoa, and Vanuatu, and another is under construction in Papua New Guinea.

"[9] Though they had been denied entry in 1948, Iranian Baháʼís began to be admitted in 1973 where persecution again rose.

[10] Since the 1980s the Baháʼís of Australia have become involved and spoken out on a number of civic issues – from interfaith initiative such as Soul Food[11] to conferences on indigenous issues[12] and national policies of equal rights and pay for work.

[13] The community was counted by census in 2001 to be about 11,000 individuals[14] and includes some well-known people (see Baháʼí Faith in Australia – National exposure.)

[15] In 2000, Paul Sjoquist of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the Hawaiian Islands estimated that there were as many as 1,000 followers in Hawaii.

Nevertheless, with successive pioneers and converts the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly in 1967 in Majuro.

[20] In 1961 Jeannette Outhey was the first New Caledonian to join the religion and with other converts and pioneers elected the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Nouméa.

[30] While the first mention of events related to the history of the Baháʼí Faith in New Zealand was in 1846[31] continuous contact began around 1904 when one individual after another came in contact with Baháʼís and some of them published articles in print media in New Zealand as early as 1908.

[35] After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote the Tablets of the Divine Plan which mentions New Zealand[36] the community grew quickly so that the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of the country was attempted in 1923[37] or 1924[38] and then succeeded in 1926.

Following the conversion of the then Head of State of Samoa, King Malietoa Tanumafili II,[50] the first Baháʼí House of Worship of the Pacific Islands was finished in 1984 and the Baháʼí community reached a population of over 3,000 in about the year 2000.

[18] From 1959 the Baháʼís of Tonga and their local institutions were members of a Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific.

[55] Around 2004 there were 29 local spiritual assemblies[53] and about 5% of the national population were members of the Baháʼí Faith though the Tonga Broadcasting Commission maintained a policy that does not allow discussions by members of the Baháʼí Faith of its founder, Baháʼu'lláh on its radio broadcasts.

The religion's community of Vanuatu currently holds communal worship and children's classes.