The Miss South Pacific pageant was established in 1987 by the Government of Samoa as a regional event to recognize and promote the attributes intelligence, and talents of Pacific Islands' women, their contributions to regional affairs and their ability to advance in diverse fields. The first Miss South Pacific Pageant, hosted in Western Samoa was held in 1987 & American Samoa representative, Juliette Spencer, was crowned as the first Miss South Pacific and the first Samoan to do so. Tahiti was the first nation to won a Back-To-Back victory in the Pageant's History, winning the first Miss South Pacific title for Tahiti in 1989 by Retire Chevaux & 1990 by Henari Arauva'a. Cook Islands is in record of holding the most Title Reign in the Pageant's History winning 8 titles altogether within 22 years, winning their first Miss South Pacific title by Kimiora Vogel in 1992 and Teuira Napa as their last Miss South Pacific winner in 2013 as of today. Samoa & American Samoa has each representatives from their overseas communities who won the title like Miss Samoa Hawaii, Theresa Purcell in 1988 & Miss Samoa NZ, Julia Toevai in 1992 and they're the only titleholders to won from their country's respective communities from abroad rather than their homeland. Samoa started competing in the Pageant as Western Samoa and changed its name to Samoa in 1997. The pageant started off with a close to 20+ contestants representing their homelands and their homeland communities overseas until the year 2000, the pageant allowed South Pacific Islanders contestants wishing to represent their homeland communities abroad has to compete in their homeland pageants first & win in order to enter the Miss South Pacific Pageant and the contestants number dropped in the following year in 2001. The Pageant was held in different island nations in the Pacific as voted by the Pageant's Board Members and Samoa had host the most Miss South Pacific/ Pacific Islands Pageant for more than 10+ years. American Samoa, Cook Islands & Samoa are the only islands who'd competed in the Pageant for the longest time and also the Top 3 island nations who've won Title. Many Islands & Territories who've competed before has been absent from the Pageant in years such as Aotearoa, Hawaiian Islands, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Marianas, Rapa Nui, Tokelau & Vanuatu. Fiji won their first Miss South Pacific title in 2009 by Merewalesi Nailatikau and she became the first Melanesian woman to captured the title. In 2014, the pageant was renamed Miss Pacific Islands in order to represent the entire Pacific Region instead of just the. Teuira Napa of the Cook Islands was the last to reign as Miss South Pacific & Latafale Auva'a of Samoa was the first to reign as Miss Pacific Islands. Latafale Auva’a was the only Miss Pacific Islands who’ve held multiple Pageant title during her reign as Miss Pacific Islands which includes Miss Samoa NZ, Miss Samoa & Miss World Samoa. In 2015, Latafale Auva'a sets out to compete for the 2015 Miss World Pageant before the 2015 Miss Pacific Islands Pageant held at Rarotonga, Cook Islands and the former Miss South Pacific 2013 Teuira Napa was given the honor to crown the 2015 Miss Pacific Islands which was won by Abigail Havora winning the first Miss Pacific Islands title for Papua New Guinea. In a history making decision made by the Miss Pacific Islands committee and board, it was announced that there will be no the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant for the year of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The current reigning Miss Pacific Islands and Miss Samoa 2019/2020 Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu will be the first and only Miss Pacific Islands to hold the crown and title for two consecutive years in the entire history of the pageant.
