Far East Kingdoms

Cook Islands / Rarotonga (Polynesia) (Oceania)
AD 1888 - Present Day
Incorporating the Cook Islands Federation (1891-1901), & Cook Islands Government (1901-On)

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, of which the Cook Islands are a part, is the vast easternmost stretch of a thousand islands in Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. 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 today are a Polynesian self-governing entity which is associated with New Zealand. The islands are located 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, near the southern end of this chain, is the capital island and also the chief island. It originally also gave its name to the entire island group, although they were also known as Tumu-te-varovaro. It is part of the Hervey Islands sub-chain to the east of Tonga, to the south-east of Samoa, to the south-west of the Society Islands, and to the north-west of the Austral Islands. Other islands and chiefdoms in the Cook Islands include Avarua and Ma'uke. Tribes of the Cook Islands include the Arorangi, Ngati Tangi'ia (also called Takitumu), and Tongaiti (also called Kainuku).

According to legend, around AD 975-1000, Polynesians from Iva, an island of an unknown location in what is now French Polynesia, settled Rarotonga (the Cook Islands) and the Society Islands, including Tahiti. These original Neolithic Oceania inhabitants were known as Mana'une or Tangata enua ('people of the land').

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, and Alarm in Cook Islands over proposed cryptocurrency legislation (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), and A Brief History of Rarotonga & the Cook Islands, Laura S (Cook Islands Pocket Guide), and Cook Islands (Flags of the World), and Cook Islands History (Goway.com), and Mangaian Society, Te Rangi Hiroa/P H Buck (Bishop Museum, 1934, and accessed via NZETC), and Relief Web, and Tangia and Tutapu, History and Traditions of Rarotonga, Te Ariki-Tara-are (Trans, S Percy Smith, Parts VI & VII, Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol 28, 1919, University of Hawaii), and Ms Catherine Graham Assumes New Zealand High Commissioner To The Cook Islands Post (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Government of the Cook Islands).)

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 in 1891 becomes the first female president of the federation's executive council.

1888 - 1891

British resident.

1891 - 1901

President of exec council. High chief of Avarua (1871-1911).

1901 - 1965

The Cook Islands are incorporated into Britain's 'Colonial New Zealand' on 11 June 1901. New Zealand becomes a self-governing dominion in 1907, one which effectively is independent of the United Kingdom.

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

1891 - 1898

British resident.

1898 - 1909

Resident. New Zealand resident commissioner after 1901.

1909 - 1913

New Zealand resident commissioner of Rarotonga.

1913 - 1916

New Zealand resident commissioner.

1916 - 1921

Resident commissioner of Rarotonga.

1921 - 1922

Resident commissioner.

1922 - 1937

Resident commissioner.

1937 - 1938

Resident commissioner.

1938 - 1943

Resident commissioner for the second time.

1942

During the Second World War, the United States builds substantial airbases on Penrhyn and Aitutaki. Otherwise, the Cook Islands are untouched by the war. An airstrip is built on Rarotonga. In unison with better maritime connections, this begins a large-scale migration to New Zealand. Nevertheless, the population is fairly stable as Rarotonga experiences immigration from other parts of the Cook Islands.

Japanese evacuation from Guadalcanal was largely successful thanks to bombing attacks on the US fleet, with very few Japanese troops surrendering to the allies, but it marked the beginning of a series of setbacks for Japan

1943 - 1951

Resident commissioner.

1951 - 1960

Resident commissioner of the Cook Islands.

1961 - 1965

Resident commissioner. High commissioner (1965).

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.

1965 - 1972

High commissioner.

1972 - 1974

High commissioner.

1974 - 1975

Acting high commissioner.

1975 - 1976

Acting New Zealand representative.

1975 - 1984

Queen’s representative.

1976 - 1978

New Zealand representative.

1978 - 1980

New Zealand representative.

1980 - 1982

New Zealand representative.

1983 - 1985

New Zealand representative.

1984

Acting queen’s representative.

1985 - 1987

New Zealand representative.

1986

The Treaty of Rarotonga is signed on that island, between a group of South Pacific nations in order to create a nuclear-free zone. It covers the 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 on the other.

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

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.

1984 - 1990

Queen's representative.

1987 - 1990

New Zealand representative.

1990 - 2000

Queen's representative.

1990 - 1994

New Zealand representative. High commissioner from 1993.

1994 - 1997

New Zealand high commissioner.

1994 - 1997

New Zealand high commissioner.

1998 - 2001

New Zealand high commissioner.

2000 - 2001

Acting queen's representative.

2001 - 2005

New Zealand high commissioner.

2001 - 2013

Queen's representative.

2001

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

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 - 2008

New Zealand high commissioner.

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.

2008

New Zealand high commissioner.

2008 - 2009

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2009

New Zealand high commissioner.

2009 - 2010

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2010 - 2011

New Zealand high commissioner.

2011 - 2013

New Zealand high commissioner.

2013 - 2014

New Zealand high commissioner.

2013 - On

Queen's representative. King's representative (after 2023).

2014 - 2015

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2015 - 2016

New Zealand high commissioner.

2017 - 2019

New Zealand high commissioner.

2019

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2019

New Zealand high commissioner.

2019 - 2020

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2020

Acting New Zealand high commissioner.

2020 - 2024

New Zealand high commissioner.

2024

A controversial 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.

Jacinda Arden was New Zealand's pragmatic prime minister during a series of major events which included the Christchurch mosque shooting of 2019 and the Covid pandemic of 2020-2021

2024 - On

New Zealand high commissioner.

2024

Ms Catherine Graham succeeds Ms Tui Dewes as New Zealand high commissioner to the Cook Islands with residence in Rarotonga. Her first day on 10 September 2024 sees her meet New Zealand's foreign secretary, Ms Tepaeru Herrmann.