Far East Kingdoms

Avarua / Te Au o Tonga (Cook Islands / Polynesia) (Oceania)

Oceania All Modern States China East Asia Japan South-East Asia

Considered in some quarters to be a watery continent in its own right, Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Its territory is somewhat debatable, but generally consists of the waters of the Pacific Ocean dotted with some two thousand islands, some of which are independent states and others either parts of countries or colonies.

Polynesia is the vast easternmost stretch of a thousand islands across Oceania. Northern Polynesia consists of the long chain of Hawaiian islands which reach from the Midway Islands in the west, just to the east of the international date line, to the island of Hawaii in the east, all in the North Pacific. Progressing from west to east, southern Polynesia in the South Pacific consists of Tuvalu, Wallis & Futuna, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, the Pitcairn Islands, and Easter Island.

The Cook Islands, of which Avarua is a part, are a Polynesian self-governing entity which is associated with Australasia's New Zealand. The islands are located in southern Polynesia, between Samoa and Tonga to the west and the Society Islands of French Polynesia to the east. To the north is Kiribati. They amount to fifteen islands spread over an area of 2.2 million square kilometres - an expanse the size of India - with a population of only seventeen thousand.

Rarotonga (the ancient name for what is now the Cook Islands) sits near the southern end of the island chain and is the main island. Avarua forms a kingdom within the Cook Islands, while also being the name of the island chain's capital city and the district which contains the capital on the northern side of Rarotonga.

Legend has it that Polynesians probably settled Rarotonga by around AD 650, during the Neolithic Oceania period. This was at a point at which Rarotongan Polynesians were beginning to visit or populate a large number of other Polynesian islands. Historically, Rarotonga was settled around the ninth century, with that date being arrived at thanks to a coral road which still circles the main island today and which can reliably be dated to about AD 800.

Please note that the History Files does not regularly monitor changes in modern heads of state or their representatives. Get in touch here if this section requires updating.

(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I, Abraham Fornander (Mutual Publishing Company, 1996, and originally published as An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, Vol II), from Beyond the Blue Horizon (National Geographic, March 2008), and from External Links: The Heart of Polynesia - The Cook Islands, and Cook Islands (Rulers.org), and Cook Islands (World Statesmen), and Hawaiki: The Original Home of the Maori; with a Sketch of Polynesian History (Victoria University of Wellington Library), and Land Tenure in the Cook Islands, R G Crocombe (New Zealand Electronic Text Collection), and Tangia and Tutapu - History and Traditions of Rarotonga, Te Ariki-Tara-are (Trans S Percy Smith, Parts VI and VII, Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol 28, University of Hawaii, 1919), and Treaty of Rarotonga (United Nations), and Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership.)

c.AD 650

Legend states that Rarotongans visit or colonise a large number of Pacific islands during the Neolithic Oceania period, including the Hawaiian islands, the New Hebrides (now known as Vanuatu), and Easter Island.

c.875

Further legend mentions Tuna-ariki, a descendant of Ui-te-rangiora of 'Avaiki, who lives in ancient Fiji and who battles Tu-ei-puka over the rule of Avarua. Tuna-ariki kills Tu-ei-puka and wins the chieftainship.

Tuna is a contemporary of Apakura, one who lives about AD 875 and whose brothers have already discovered Rarotonga (the Cook Islands). Tu-ei-puku's son, Kati-ongia, escapes to 'Upolu in Samoa and becomes 'Upolu's ruling chief. His Samoan name is 'Ati-ongie.

The concept of 'Avaiki stretches back over many generations, with it commonly being known as the final resting place of all Polynesians, one which was located within the bowels of 'Mother earth'

c.875

Ariki (high chief). Killed and eaten by a pig.

After winning the chieftainship, Tuna-ariki is killed by a pig, which then eats the body. Tu-ei-puku's son is Kati-ongia, and legend states that it is he who succeeds Tuna.

?

Son of Tu-ei-puku. Ariki. Also ruler of 'Upolu.

Descendants of Kati-ongia include Kapua, Atonga, and Te-Aru-tanga-nuku amongst their number. Legend has the last of these living on the island of 'Upolu in Samoa.

c.950

Ancestors of the Māori-Rarotongans first settle in Viti (Fiji). According to legend Tu-nui is a high chief who lives in western Fiji. He is the great-great-grandson of Apakura, the famous ancestor of the Māori-Rarotongans who once had lived in Tonga.

Vegetation-covered volcanic peaks are the 'skyscrapers' of Rarotonga, the main island in the Cook Islands chain, where buildings are no taller than the highest coconut tree

c.975 - 1000

Polynesians from Iva, an island with an unknown location in what is now French Polynesia, settle in Rarotonga (the Cook Islands) and the Society Islands, including Tahiti. These inhabitants are known as the Mana'une or Tangata enua (''people of the land'). The Kainuku line of chiefs is descended from these early people.

Migrations, still from French Polynesia, continue over a number of succeeding generations. Wars result, and there are a small number of migrations which take people away from Rarotonga to avoid the conflict. The Kainuku are among those victors who remain in place.

900s - 1000s

According to Hawaiian and other Polynesian legends, following a period of quiet, considerable activity starts at the close of the tenth century or at the beginning of the eleventh which involves migration, legend, and personalities.

A great migratory wave ensues for about two hundred years, with chiefs and others from southern Polynesian island groups arriving in the Hawaiian group, and Hawaiian chiefs and others voyaging to the southern groups. Some of the principal chief families come from Holani, Nuumea, Polapola, and Tahiti.

At the geographic centre of Polynesian society were the islands of Kūki 'Āirani (the Cook Islands) and Tōtaiete mā (the Society Islands), while larger communities were formed in the Hawaiian chain and in Aotearoa (New Zealand) where the Māori people spoke (and still speak) a Polynesian language - the furthest extent of Polynesian society was Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

c.1050

To'i, the ariki of Rarotonga, builds the coral road which is known as Ara Metua. The road encircles the island and passes through Avarua, surviving to this day.

late 1100s

Legend states that two united expeditions leave Samoa and Tahiti under the leadership of Karika and Tangi'ia. Both arrive, establish themselves, and subdue the inhabitants of Rarotonga a total of twenty-nine generations before the nineteenth century (which would place the principal action in the 1300s).

According to Hawaiian legend, Rarotonga is one of the islands of Kahiki, the vast region which consists of all of the Pacific Ocean's islands to the south of Hawaii, from Easter Island westward to Malaysia.

The massive heads and torsos on Easter Island dot the landscape like stone sentinels, standing guard over the isle's treeless, grassy expanse

late 1100s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga (Avarua). Left for Iva.

Continuing legend has Karika and some of his followers leaving for Iva (which is located in the Marquesas), never to return. His line is preserved by his son, or perhaps grandson, who remains behind. If he is in fact a grandson then he is the son of Tangi'ia by Karika's daughter. This successor has the title makea, which is borne by all male ariki.

1100s

Son or grandson. Ariki.

c.1200 - 1300

New Zealand becomes the last major habitable land mass to be settled by anatomically modern humans when Polynesians arrive in the Cook Islands, having canoed there from Rarotonga.

The Polynesians became the ancestors of the Māori, who are not known by that name until the arrival of Europeans. The people who will one day become the Māori spread around the New Zealand islands, dividing themselves into tribes and sub-tribes.

This hand-coloured woodcut of a nineteenth century illustration attempts to show a Maori fortified village, or pah, in Taranaki, New Zealand, in the mid-1800s

mid-1200s

Another legend, one which is recited by Te Ariki-Tara-are, the last high priest of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, states that Pou-vananga-roa adopts his nephew Rangi (grandson of Ka'u-kara and son of Pou-vananga-roa's sister, Ka'u-ngaki) and renames the boy Tangi'ia. Pou-vananga-roa's birth is placed at AD 1225, which dates these events to the middle of the 1200s. His own son is Maono.

Pou-vananga-roa also adopts Tutapu, the son of his other sister, Maonga. He appoints Maono to the position of ariki (high chief) of Tahiti, and makes Tutapu the ariki of Iva (Hiva) in the Marquesas. Tangi'ia is installed as a tavana (a minor chief) of Tahiti. Tangi'ia is unhappy with his appointment, so he overthrows Maono to become ariki.

Tangi'ia visits his two sisters in the district of Utaki on the island of Ma'uke in the Cook Islands and sleeps with them. In the named canoe of 'Tuna-moe-vai', which he renames 'Taki-pu' and later renames again 'Takitumu', he visits Savai'i ('Avaiki) in Samoa and other islands. While he is absent his brother, Tutapu, ariki of Iva, with whom he has continuously quarrelled, arrives with an army.

Paopao Bay, now better known as Cooks Bay in the Cook Islands, with a mid-twentieth century postcard photograph presenting an idyllic scene

When Tangi'ia returns, having retrieved his children by his two sisters, he offers conciliation and tribute in the form of a sacred breadfruit, but in the end Tutapu wants to make war. With Tangi'ia losing that war, he prepares a canoe for escape. In a final battle, Tangi'ia's two sons are killed, and Tangi'ia steals the god Ronga-ma-Uenga from Tutapu and sails away with his people.

Thanks to the theft of the god (presumably in the form of a statue), Tutapu will pursue Tangi'ia for years. With his chief warrior and navigator, Pai, whom Tangi'ia renames Tei-vao-ariki, Tangi'ia visits the ancestral home of 'Avaiki (Savai'i) in Samoa. Tangi'ia receives the blessings of the gods and their promise that he can rule Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and never be defeated in battle.

He visits a number of islands, including Tahiti, where he meets Iro (Hiro), whose son Tangi'ia promises to make the ariki of Tangi'ia's people. The son, Taputapuatea, is found diving for shellfish in Easter Island.

During his voyages, Tangi'ia visits his sister, now living in Huahine in the Society Islands. She gives him her canoe, 'Kai-oi', which he joins to his canoe to make a double canoe called a purua. He renames Iro's son Te Aiki-upoko-tini ('ruler of many people').

By the time European explorers entered the Pacific in the fifteenth century, almost all of the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years and oral traditions told of explorations, migrations, and travels across this immense watery world

Voyaging to find Rarotonga, Tangi'ia encounters Karika (also known as Te Tai-tonga), chief of Manu'a Island in Samoa. Karika attempts to seize the red plumes which Tangi'ia wears as a symbol of the ariki, but Tangi'ia defeats him. Karika makes peace and gives in marriage to Tangi'ia one Mokoroa-ki-aitu, Karika's own daughter.

Finally, Tangi'ia reaches Rarotonga, landing on the east side of the island at Te Kaoa. His people construct a marae (an ancient open-air place of worship, usually with a paved floor and surrounded by a stone wall). Later, Karika lands on Rarotonga at the East Reef and settles there, building a coral fort called Are-au.

Tutapu also lands on Rarotonga. Tangi'ia defeats and kills Tutapu before eating his eyeballs, and then his people cook and eat the body. Together, Tangi'ia and Karika subdue the local population already in Rarotonga. Tutapu's defeat is followed by ten generations of relative peace.

Tangi'ia and Karika divide their people into six tribes and set up a political organisation, one which includes the establishment (or re-establishment) of the ariki (the high chiefs).

The Cook Islands today are one of the South Pacific's best-kept secrets, a natural paradise, and the location of a good deal of Polynesian history which has been recorded through oral history

Tangi'ia's own tribe is known as the Ngati Tangi'ia or Takitumu (after Tangi'ia's canoe). Karika's tribe is known as Te Au o Tonga or Avarua. When Tangi'ia dies, his spirit joins other gods, and he becomes a god himself.

?

Direct descendent? Ariki.

?

Direct descendent? Ariki.

?

Direct descendent? Ariki.

c.1430s - 1450s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1450s - 1470s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1470s - 1490s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1490s - 1510s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1510s - 1530s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1530s - 1550s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1550s - 1560s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1560s - 1570s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1570s - 1580s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1580s - 1590s

Ariki. Banished for cannibalism. Founded Arorangi.

1590s

In the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, the first of the Arorangi line, Rongooe, is banished from Avarua due to his leaning towards despotism. As a chief he has ended ten generations of peace by killing and eating men, an act which has ignited the troubles of the land. He moves to the western part of Rarotonga, a haven for refugees, and later is accepted there as ariki.

A feature of the second millennium AD Polynesian tribal story in the Cook Islands, Arorangi today offers two beaches which are perfect for sunbathing, surfing, and swimming

c.1590s - 1600s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1600

The Uritaua party lands in Rarotonga. The makea (ariki) awards two of the group's leaders with the rank of rangatira, a chiefly rank which is positioned just below the ariki.

c.1600s - 1620s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1620s - 1640s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1640s - 1660s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1660s - 1680s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1680s - 1700s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1700s - 1710s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1710s - 1720s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

c.1720s - 1740s

Ariki of Te Au o Tonga.

1700s

At a point in the 1700s, seemingly later in the century, two lines of high chiefs command the people of Te Au o Tonga, either of the senior line or the junior line. The sequence is not always smooth when some chiefs die early and a replacement needs to be appointed.

Te Manga is the highest point on Rarotonga, with an elevation of six hundred and fity-two metres above sea level, part of the Cook Islands

c.1740s - 1750s

Ariki of the senior line.

c.1750s - 1760s

Ariki of the senior line.

c.1760s - 1780s

Ariki of the senior line.

1773 - 1777

British navigator and explorer, Captain James Cook, in 1773 is the first European to sight Manuae and the Hervey Islands in the southern Cook Islands. He returns in 1774 to spot Mangaia, Atiu (which he calls Wautieu), and Takutea.

c.1780s - 1800s

Ariki of the senior line.

c.1780s - 1810s

Ariki of the junior line.

c.1800s - 1823

Ariki of the senior line.

c.1810s - 1823

Ariki of the junior line.

1823 - 1839

Ariki of the senior line.

1823 - 1852

Ariki of the junior line.

1839 - 1845

Ariki of the senior line.

1845 - 1857

Sister. Ariki of the senior line (female).

1845 - 1857

Makea Te Vairua, the younger sister of Makea Dāvida, is the first woman to become high chief. She is a supporter of Christian missionaries who have helped her to ascend to the high chieftainship. She is succeeded by her younger brother, Dāniela, in 1857.

New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, although this oil on canvas by Marcus King was produced a century later and has somewhat romanticised the event: Māori leader, Tāmati Wāka Nene, is shown signing the treaty in front of British officials and witnesses, with Governor Hobson the central seated figure

1852 - 1857

Ariki of the junior line.

1857 - 1866

Brother of Vairua. Ariki of the senior line.

1857 - 1908

Ariki of the junior line.

1866 - 1871

Ariki of the senior line.

1871 - 1911

Senior Ariki (female). Cook Islands president (1891-1901).

1888 - 1891

Rarotonga, also called the Cook Islands, becomes a British protectorate. The Cook Islands federation, which includes Avarua, is formed on 5 June 1891. Makea Takau Ariki becomes the first female president of the federation's executive council.

1901 - 1907

The Cook Islands are incorporated in 1901 into the British colony of New Zealand. Avarua continues the custom of appointing its high chiefs. New Zealand becomes a self-governing dominion in 1907, effectively making it independent of the United Kingdom.

'The Dominion of New Zealand', Simpson & Williams Ltd, Christchurch, release on 4 November 1927 as a colourful booklet, having been created for the 'Department of Tourist and Health Resorts' to advertise New Zealand for holidays (External Link: Creative Commons Licence 2.0 Deed)

1911 - 1921

Ariki of the senior line.

1921 - 1939

Ariki of the senior line.

1939 - 1947

Ariki of the senior line (female).

1908 - 1942

Ariki of the junior line (female). Otherwise known as Karika Takau.

1940s

An airstrip is built on Rarotonga. Together with better ship connections, this begins large-scale migrations to New Zealand. Nevertheless, the population is fairly stable, as Rarotonga experiences immigration from other parts of the Cook Islands.

1942 - 1949

Ariki of the junior line.

1949 - 2017

Ariki of the junior line (female).

1950 - 1994

Ariki of the senior line (female).

1962 - 1965

Western Samoa becomes the 'Independent State of Western Samoa' on 1 January 1962. In 1965, the Cook Islands, a possession of New Zealand, becomes an associated state with New Zealand.

The picturesque beaches of Mangaia, with its secluded coves which are sheltered by coral limestone, form part of the idyllic Cook Islands

1986

The Treaty of Rarotonga is signed on that island within the Cook Islands and between a group of South Pacific nations to create a nuclear-free zone.

The zone covers entirety of the southern Pacific region, with the western coast of Australia and the western boundary of Papua New Guinea as the border on one side and the coast of Latin America between the equator and the boundary of the Antarctic Treaty as the opposite border.

The treaty expands a policy which had been started in 1985 by New Zealand's prime minister, David Lange, and which had also served to dissolved Anzus, the alliance between Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.

1994 - 1996

Ariki of the senior line (female). Reign disputed.

2001

Cyclone Trina strikes Rarotonga and Mangaia, bringing eight days of rain and heavy flooding. Ninety percent of the taro crop, the main product, is submerged, and sixty percent of livestock drowns.

Tropical Cyclone Trina formed to the south of the Cook Islands on 29 November 2001, passing between the islands of Avarua and Mangaia on 1-2 December, and sustaining winds of seventy kilometres an hour with stronger gusts causing very rough seas and coastal flooding

2005

Five cyclones, Meena, Nancy, Olaf, Percy, and Rae, strike the Cook Islands in the space of one month. Percy in particular Is severely damaging to Pukapuka and Nassau in the northern Cook Islands.

2018 - On

Ariki of the junior line.

2024

A controversial Cook Islands bill to allow the government to regain losses from cryptocurrency scams is revealed to have been drafted by a private for-profit American debt-collection company. The major objection to the bill is the feature which will effectively authorise the government 'ethically' to hack into any system around the world. Opponents decry the potential for violating privacy.