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Melanesian culture, the convictions, and practices of the indigenous people groups of the ethnographic gathering of Pacific Islands known as Melanesia. From northwest to southeast, the islands structure a bend that starts with New Guinea (the western portion of which is called Papua and is a piece of Indonesia, and the eastern portion of which involves the free nation of Papua New Guinea) and proceeds through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (some time ago New Hebrides), New Caledonia, Fiji, and various littler islands. The Andesite Line, a land highlight of extraordinary volcanic and seismic tremor action, isolates Melanesia from Polynesia in the east and from Micronesia in the north, along the Equator; in the south, Melanesia is limited by the Tropic of Capricorn and Australia. Melanesia's name was gotten from the Greek melas 'dark' and nesoi 'islands' as a result of the brown complexion of its occupants. In the mid-21st century, the number of inhabitants in Melanesia was roughly 10 million.