Cook Islands

Kia orāna! The Cook Islands is made up of 15 islands in the South Pacific Ocean the largest being Rarotonga. This topic covers the tropical island’s Polynesian history, geology, culture, people, agriculture and relationship with NZ. SCIS no. 1807252

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Images
Two unidentified local women wearing pareu laplaps and hula skirts, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Two unidentified local women wearing pareu laplaps and hula skirts, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Photograph taken by Whites Aviation. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: ¼ plate Glass negative, 3.25 x 4.25 inches
Articles
Cook Islands
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is a country in the Pacific Ocean made up of 15 different islands. Rarotonga is the largest of the 15 islands. The capital Avarua is found on the island of Rarotonga. The Cook Isla...
Other
Cook Islands Language Week 2023
Cook Islands Language Week resources and calendar of events from the Ministry for Pacific People.
Other
Cook Islands Language Week – Te ‘Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani
The Cook Islands Language Week celebrates the identity, languages, and culture of students from the Cook Islands.
Other
Cook Islands Language Week resource
Learn Cook Islands Māori words, phrases, and pronunciation and explore aspects of Cook Island Māori culture through this resource created by Te Papa Tongarewa.
Images
Pa`u mangö (skin drum)
Pa`u mangö (skin drum)
This pa'u mango (smaller skin drum) is from the Cook Islands. It is part of a complete tini ka'ara (drum ensemble) comprising six drums - two skin drums and four wooden slit drums. Two types of ski...
Websites
WWW
Dictionary of Cook Islands languages
A bilingual online dictionary and a link to an app on Cook Islands languages.
Images
Tivaevae tataura (appliqué embroidered quilt)
Tivaevae tataura (appliqué embroidered quilt)
Tīvaevae - Treasured quilts Tīvaevae are treasured quilts made by women in the Cook Islands. Tīvaevae are made from brightly coloured fabrics, and designs can include geometric shapes, flower and a...
Books
Cook Islands Māori
Examples of Cook Island Māori storybooks with downloadable storybook teacher support materials.
Articles
Cook Islands achieves self-government
Self-government and democracy in Cook Islands in 1965.
Images
Schoolgirl from the Cook Islands
Schoolgirl from the Cook Islands
Unidentified Cook Island schoolgirl, possibly from St Joseph's School in Rarotonga, photographed during the 6th Pacific Arts Festival, Cook Islands, taken 19 October 1992 by Julia Brooke-White. In...
Images
Weaving pandanus mats
Weaving pandanus mats
Tepou, wife of Bob Marsters, and her adopted daughter, young Tepou, weaving pandanus mats on the floor of the family sleeping house. Photograph taken on Palmerston Atoll, Cook Islands, in 1960 by ...
Images
Pare (hat)
Pare (hat)
History This pare (hat) was made in Palmerston atoll, Cook Islands in the 1990s. It is woven from strips of finely cut rito (young coconut leaf). The structure and stule is consistent with other pa...
Stories
Cook islands — Arts and Craft
Cook islands — Arts and Craft
Wood carving, weaving and tivaevae from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Tivaevae ta‘orei
Image and information about the ceremonial quilt tivaevae ta‘orei.
Images
Cook Island stamps
Cook Island stamps
Stamps created on the occasion of Cook Islands achieving self-government in 1965.
Videos
Picking oranges in the Cook Islands
Picking oranges in the Cook Islands
Oranges from  the Cook Islands were a significant export to New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s. This 1951 newsreel shows the low-tech methods used in the industry. Raro was a well-known brand of or...
Images
Taro patch in Rarotonga
Taro patch in Rarotonga
Taro, one of the most widely cultivated plants in Cook Islands.
Articles
Tapping into the past
Tapping into the past
Ta Tatau artists keeping the tradition of tattooing alive.
Images
King and Queen of Cook Islands
King and Queen of Cook Islands
Prime Minister Richard John Seddon with King John and Queen, Mangaia, Cook Islands.
Articles
Soldiers commemorated in NZ
Descendants of Cook Islands men who enlisted in the First World War have acknowledged their ancestors' service at Parliament in New Zealand.
Images
Atua rakau (staff god)
Atua rakau (staff god)
Rarotongan staff gods consisted of a long wooden staff with an elaborately carved top and a lesser amount of carving at the base. The central shaft was left uncarved and was swathed in a large bund...
Images
Woman and child from Aitutaki
Woman and child from Aitutaki
Woman and child from Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Photograph taken September 1945 by Whites Aviation. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 3.25 x 4.25 ...
Articles
Cook Islanders:
Early immigrants from the Cook Islands in Auckland and Wellington.
Books
Discovery of the Cook Islands
18 Cook Islands - Discoverers of the Cook Islands and the names they gave them.
Videos
Children of Aitutaki
Children of Aitutaki
The Cook Islands, named after Captain James Cook who discovered them in 1772, lie in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are governed by New Zealand. One of these islands named Aitutaki is the foc...
Images
Ariki in Rarotonga
Ariki in Rarotonga
The Cook Islands were managed by ariki or high chiefs. In this photograph from left to right) we see Pa Maretu Ariki. He was the ariki or high chief of the Pa dynasty and was educated by European m...
Images
Wreck of the ship Maitai
Wreck of the ship Maitai
The 3400 ton Union Steam Ship Maitai was carrying Model T Fords in 1916 from the United States to New Zealand when it struck a reef outside Avarua Harbour on Christmas Eve. Fortunately there was no...
Images
Man playing a village drum
Man playing a village drum
Drums are an important part of cultural life in the Cook Islands. Large drums are sounded in different ways to call people to church, announce a meeting or alert the community to an emergency etc.
Videos
Cook Islands 1952
Cook Islands customs, fishing and dancing.
Articles
Rarotonga
Essential information about Rarotonga, the capital of Cook Islands.
Articles
Rituals and reasons
The origin of the hair cutting ceremony in the Cook Islands.
Images
Cook Islands images
The Cook Islands Herald offers a range of images covering island life.
Articles
A Journey from despair
Poem by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, a poet of Cook Island and European descent.
Videos
"Te Atua Mou'e"
National anthem of Cooks Islands.
Articles
Cook Islands
Culture, orientation, history and other useful information about the Cook Islands.
Videos
Complete guide to the Cook Islands
A visual guide to the beauty, culture and music of the Cook Islands.
Images
Husking a coconut
Husking a coconut
The coconut tree is called the ‘Tree of life’ in the Cook Islands because every bit of the tree has a use. Coconut water makes a cool refreshing drink on a hot day. Coconut meat (or dried, copra) c...
Books
Arts and crafts of the Cook Islands
E-book reporting on early arts and crafts of Cook Islands.
Articles
Changing climate in Cook Islands
Pdf on the effects of global warming on Cook islands.
Audio
Historical links between the Cook Islands and Māori
An unidentified Cook Island speaker talks with Māori about whakapapa.
Articles
History of voyaging
The origin of voyaging in the Cook Islands.
Audio
Saving a lagoon
A report on the mission to salvage a sick lagoon, once seen as the jewel of the country's tourism industry. Listen to this report on New Zealand Geographic available through EPIC. School Login may ...
Websites
WWW
EPIC
Find more information on this topic on EPIC. Databases recommended: Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre Plus, New Zealand Geographic. School login maybe required.
Articles
World factbook: Cook Islands
Quick facts about the Cook Islands.
Websites
WWW
Marae Moana
Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine park which extends over the entire Exclusive Economic Zone of the Cook Islands, an area of 1.9 million square kilometres.
Articles
Tapa: Pacific Style - Cook Islands tapa
The volcanic soil of some atolls in the Southern Cook Islands was fertile ground for tapa-making trees, particularly paper mulberry, but also banyan and breadfruit trees.
Articles
Cook Islands vaka – Tauhuna and A’ua’u
Information about vaka from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Chief’s cloak
The story of a magnificent cloak held by Te Papa that once belonged to Teai’a Mata’iapo, a Rarotongan chief.
Articles
Cook Islands Sportswoman of the Year
She's the latest sibling to represent the Cook Islands in canoe slalom, but Jane Nicholas is claiming a family first after being named the Cook Islands Sportswoman of the Year.
Articles
Te Maeva Nui opens in NZ for the first time
The Cook Islands' biggest cultural festival has come to New Zealand for the first time since its inception more than 50 years ago.
Articles
Cook Island soldiers added to Commonwealth War Graves records
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has added the names of six Cook Islanders to its records.
Articles
Pacific author acknowledged
Courtney Sina Meredith, is of Samoan, Cook Island and Irish descent and was the first Pacific writer and first New Zealander to hold the LiteraturRaum Blebitreu Berlin residency in 2011.
Audio
Cook Islanders dancing for health
In the future, Cook Islanders will be dancing their way to better health if Troy Tararo-Ruhe has a say in it.
Videos
The fight against rising tides
This documentary tells of the fight against rising tides and how climate change is seriously affecting pearl farming and the economy of the low lying atolls in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands.
Images
Te Papa’s Cook Islands Collection
View Te Papa Tongarewa’s fascinating collection of culturally significant objects from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Stealing Maru, School Journal: Level 2: Aug 2019
A traditional tale about a majestic maunga, or mountain, on the island of Rarotonga.
Articles
A Quilt for Kiri, Ready to Read
A story about the death of a child’s grandmother far away in the Cook Islands.
Articles
George Crummer: Picturing the Cook Islands
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries George Crummer built up a business taking pictures of Cook Islanders and general scene photographs in Rarotonga, Aituaki, and Mangaia.
Videos
Stories sewn in quilts
Tivaevae play an important role in the narrative tradition of Pacific culture -- take a look at two of these beautiful quilts in Te Papa's collection.
Videos
Cook Islands Tīvaevae, stitched with love
Discover the art of tīvaevae (quilting) with Cook Islands women from the Wellington region.
Articles
Tīvaevae
The origins, meanings, and construction of tīvaevae.
Articles
Cook Islanders
While the Cook Islands’ economy and future are fragile, in New Zealand’s communities the culture is thriving – from language nests to quilt making and high-spirited dance festivals.
Articles
Aid and trade with Cook Islands
Trade and development between New Zealand and the Cook Islands
Websites
WWW
Digital Pasifik
See, discover and explore items of digitised Pacific cultural heritage that are held in collections around the world.
Images
Cook Islands. Warriors pledge fierce allegiance in a legend presented in dance-drama style.
Cook Islands. Warriors pledge fierce allegiance in a legend presented in dance-drama style.
12 South Pacific Festival of Arts, Suva, FIJI, May 1972
Videos
E reo noku - Araura-Aitutaki
Te papa Tupuna o Aitutaki; Te Vaka o Ru A detailed description about the history, traditional practices and genealogical ties shared by a few descendants from the island of Araura or Aitutaki.
Videos
E reo noku - Rakahanga-Manihiki
Te Katirianga’ia I te Enua o Rakahanga–Manihiki A dive into how the islands of Rakahanga and Manihiki came to be populated. Stories are told by Huda Robati and Rev. Elder Robati.
Images
Two unidentified local women wearing pareu laplaps and hula skirts, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Two unidentified local women wearing pareu laplaps and hula skirts, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Photograph taken by Whites Aviation. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: ¼ plate Glass negative, 3.25 x 4.25 inches
Articles
Cook Islands
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is a country in the Pacific Ocean made up of 15 different islands. Rarotonga is the largest of the 15 islands. The capital Avarua is found on the island of Rarotonga. The Cook Isla...
Other
Cook Islands Language Week 2023
Cook Islands Language Week resources and calendar of events from the Ministry for Pacific People.
Other
Cook Islands Language Week – Te ‘Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani
The Cook Islands Language Week celebrates the identity, languages, and culture of students from the Cook Islands.
Other
Cook Islands Language Week resource
Learn Cook Islands Māori words, phrases, and pronunciation and explore aspects of Cook Island Māori culture through this resource created by Te Papa Tongarewa.
Images
Pa`u mangö (skin drum)
Pa`u mangö (skin drum)
This pa'u mango (smaller skin drum) is from the Cook Islands. It is part of a complete tini ka'ara (drum ensemble) comprising six drums - two skin drums and four wooden slit drums. Two types of ski...
Websites
WWW
Dictionary of Cook Islands languages
A bilingual online dictionary and a link to an app on Cook Islands languages.
Images
Tivaevae tataura (appliqué embroidered quilt)
Tivaevae tataura (appliqué embroidered quilt)
Tīvaevae - Treasured quilts Tīvaevae are treasured quilts made by women in the Cook Islands. Tīvaevae are made from brightly coloured fabrics, and designs can include geometric shapes, flower and a...
Books
Cook Islands Māori
Examples of Cook Island Māori storybooks with downloadable storybook teacher support materials.
Articles
Cook Islands achieves self-government
Self-government and democracy in Cook Islands in 1965.
Images
Schoolgirl from the Cook Islands
Schoolgirl from the Cook Islands
Unidentified Cook Island schoolgirl, possibly from St Joseph's School in Rarotonga, photographed during the 6th Pacific Arts Festival, Cook Islands, taken 19 October 1992 by Julia Brooke-White. In...
Images
Weaving pandanus mats
Weaving pandanus mats
Tepou, wife of Bob Marsters, and her adopted daughter, young Tepou, weaving pandanus mats on the floor of the family sleeping house. Photograph taken on Palmerston Atoll, Cook Islands, in 1960 by ...
Images
Pare (hat)
Pare (hat)
History This pare (hat) was made in Palmerston atoll, Cook Islands in the 1990s. It is woven from strips of finely cut rito (young coconut leaf). The structure and stule is consistent with other pa...
Stories
Cook islands — Arts and Craft
Cook islands — Arts and Craft
Wood carving, weaving and tivaevae from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Tivaevae ta‘orei
Image and information about the ceremonial quilt tivaevae ta‘orei.
Images
Cook Island stamps
Cook Island stamps
Stamps created on the occasion of Cook Islands achieving self-government in 1965.
Videos
Picking oranges in the Cook Islands
Picking oranges in the Cook Islands
Oranges from  the Cook Islands were a significant export to New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s. This 1951 newsreel shows the low-tech methods used in the industry. Raro was a well-known brand of or...
Images
Taro patch in Rarotonga
Taro patch in Rarotonga
Taro, one of the most widely cultivated plants in Cook Islands.
Articles
Tapping into the past
Tapping into the past
Ta Tatau artists keeping the tradition of tattooing alive.
Images
King and Queen of Cook Islands
King and Queen of Cook Islands
Prime Minister Richard John Seddon with King John and Queen, Mangaia, Cook Islands.
Articles
Soldiers commemorated in NZ
Descendants of Cook Islands men who enlisted in the First World War have acknowledged their ancestors' service at Parliament in New Zealand.
Images
Atua rakau (staff god)
Atua rakau (staff god)
Rarotongan staff gods consisted of a long wooden staff with an elaborately carved top and a lesser amount of carving at the base. The central shaft was left uncarved and was swathed in a large bund...
Images
Woman and child from Aitutaki
Woman and child from Aitutaki
Woman and child from Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Photograph taken September 1945 by Whites Aviation. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 3.25 x 4.25 ...
Articles
Cook Islanders:
Early immigrants from the Cook Islands in Auckland and Wellington.
Books
Discovery of the Cook Islands
18 Cook Islands - Discoverers of the Cook Islands and the names they gave them.
Videos
Children of Aitutaki
Children of Aitutaki
The Cook Islands, named after Captain James Cook who discovered them in 1772, lie in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are governed by New Zealand. One of these islands named Aitutaki is the foc...
Images
Ariki in Rarotonga
Ariki in Rarotonga
The Cook Islands were managed by ariki or high chiefs. In this photograph from left to right) we see Pa Maretu Ariki. He was the ariki or high chief of the Pa dynasty and was educated by European m...
Images
Wreck of the ship Maitai
Wreck of the ship Maitai
The 3400 ton Union Steam Ship Maitai was carrying Model T Fords in 1916 from the United States to New Zealand when it struck a reef outside Avarua Harbour on Christmas Eve. Fortunately there was no...
Images
Man playing a village drum
Man playing a village drum
Drums are an important part of cultural life in the Cook Islands. Large drums are sounded in different ways to call people to church, announce a meeting or alert the community to an emergency etc.
Videos
Cook Islands 1952
Cook Islands customs, fishing and dancing.
Articles
Rarotonga
Essential information about Rarotonga, the capital of Cook Islands.
Articles
Rituals and reasons
The origin of the hair cutting ceremony in the Cook Islands.
Images
Cook Islands images
The Cook Islands Herald offers a range of images covering island life.
Articles
A Journey from despair
Poem by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, a poet of Cook Island and European descent.
Videos
"Te Atua Mou'e"
National anthem of Cooks Islands.
Articles
Cook Islands
Culture, orientation, history and other useful information about the Cook Islands.
Videos
Complete guide to the Cook Islands
A visual guide to the beauty, culture and music of the Cook Islands.
Images
Husking a coconut
Husking a coconut
The coconut tree is called the ‘Tree of life’ in the Cook Islands because every bit of the tree has a use. Coconut water makes a cool refreshing drink on a hot day. Coconut meat (or dried, copra) c...
Books
Arts and crafts of the Cook Islands
E-book reporting on early arts and crafts of Cook Islands.
Articles
Changing climate in Cook Islands
Pdf on the effects of global warming on Cook islands.
Audio
Historical links between the Cook Islands and Māori
An unidentified Cook Island speaker talks with Māori about whakapapa.
Articles
History of voyaging
The origin of voyaging in the Cook Islands.
Audio
Saving a lagoon
A report on the mission to salvage a sick lagoon, once seen as the jewel of the country's tourism industry. Listen to this report on New Zealand Geographic available through EPIC. School Login may ...
Websites
WWW
EPIC
Find more information on this topic on EPIC. Databases recommended: Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre Plus, New Zealand Geographic. School login maybe required.
Articles
World factbook: Cook Islands
Quick facts about the Cook Islands.
Websites
WWW
Marae Moana
Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine park which extends over the entire Exclusive Economic Zone of the Cook Islands, an area of 1.9 million square kilometres.
Articles
Tapa: Pacific Style - Cook Islands tapa
The volcanic soil of some atolls in the Southern Cook Islands was fertile ground for tapa-making trees, particularly paper mulberry, but also banyan and breadfruit trees.
Articles
Cook Islands vaka – Tauhuna and A’ua’u
Information about vaka from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Chief’s cloak
The story of a magnificent cloak held by Te Papa that once belonged to Teai’a Mata’iapo, a Rarotongan chief.
Articles
Cook Islands Sportswoman of the Year
She's the latest sibling to represent the Cook Islands in canoe slalom, but Jane Nicholas is claiming a family first after being named the Cook Islands Sportswoman of the Year.
Articles
Te Maeva Nui opens in NZ for the first time
The Cook Islands' biggest cultural festival has come to New Zealand for the first time since its inception more than 50 years ago.
Articles
Cook Island soldiers added to Commonwealth War Graves records
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has added the names of six Cook Islanders to its records.
Articles
Pacific author acknowledged
Courtney Sina Meredith, is of Samoan, Cook Island and Irish descent and was the first Pacific writer and first New Zealander to hold the LiteraturRaum Blebitreu Berlin residency in 2011.
Audio
Cook Islanders dancing for health
In the future, Cook Islanders will be dancing their way to better health if Troy Tararo-Ruhe has a say in it.
Videos
The fight against rising tides
This documentary tells of the fight against rising tides and how climate change is seriously affecting pearl farming and the economy of the low lying atolls in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands.
Images
Te Papa’s Cook Islands Collection
View Te Papa Tongarewa’s fascinating collection of culturally significant objects from the Cook Islands.
Articles
Stealing Maru, School Journal: Level 2: Aug 2019
A traditional tale about a majestic maunga, or mountain, on the island of Rarotonga.
Articles
A Quilt for Kiri, Ready to Read
A story about the death of a child’s grandmother far away in the Cook Islands.
Articles
George Crummer: Picturing the Cook Islands
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries George Crummer built up a business taking pictures of Cook Islanders and general scene photographs in Rarotonga, Aituaki, and Mangaia.
Videos
Stories sewn in quilts
Tivaevae play an important role in the narrative tradition of Pacific culture -- take a look at two of these beautiful quilts in Te Papa's collection.
Videos
Cook Islands Tīvaevae, stitched with love
Discover the art of tīvaevae (quilting) with Cook Islands women from the Wellington region.
Articles
Tīvaevae
The origins, meanings, and construction of tīvaevae.
Articles
Cook Islanders
While the Cook Islands’ economy and future are fragile, in New Zealand’s communities the culture is thriving – from language nests to quilt making and high-spirited dance festivals.
Articles
Aid and trade with Cook Islands
Trade and development between New Zealand and the Cook Islands
Websites
WWW
Digital Pasifik
See, discover and explore items of digitised Pacific cultural heritage that are held in collections around the world.
Images
Cook Islands. Warriors pledge fierce allegiance in a legend presented in dance-drama style.
Cook Islands. Warriors pledge fierce allegiance in a legend presented in dance-drama style.
12 South Pacific Festival of Arts, Suva, FIJI, May 1972
Videos
E reo noku - Araura-Aitutaki
Te papa Tupuna o Aitutaki; Te Vaka o Ru A detailed description about the history, traditional practices and genealogical ties shared by a few descendants from the island of Araura or Aitutaki.
Videos
E reo noku - Rakahanga-Manihiki
Te Katirianga’ia I te Enua o Rakahanga–Manihiki A dive into how the islands of Rakahanga and Manihiki came to be populated. Stories are told by Huda Robati and Rev. Elder Robati.

Other resources

Top results for Cook Islands from AnyQuestions

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Top results for Cook Islands from DigitalNZ

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12 Cook Island women write a book about life in Tokoroa
12 Cook Island women write a book about life in Tokoroa

Earlier this month the Cook Island community of Tokoroa celebrated the launch of a unique book called Te Kinakina: E...

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Cook Islands ready but anxious for travel bubble
Cook Islands ready but anxious for travel bubble

The Cook Islands travel bubble opens on Monday, and hopes are high of a return to pre-Covid visitor numbers for its...

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Tagata Pasifika - Cook Islands Language Week 2014.
Tagata Pasifika - Cook Islands Language Week 2014.

Our reporter John Utanga explores the Cook Islands culture during this year's Cook Islands language week.

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Cook Islands’ newest knight Sir Tom Marsters
Cook Islands’ newest knight Sir Tom Marsters

The Auckland Cook Islands community got a chance to welcome its newest knight, the country’s Queen’s Representative...

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