Far East Kingdoms

Rarotonga (Cook Islands / Polynesia) (Oceania)

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The watery continent of Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Polynesia, of which the Cook Islands are a part, is the vast easternmost stretch of a thousand islands in Oceania. The Cook Islands today are a Polynesian self-governing entity which is associated with Australasia's 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. Those islands amount to fifteen individual islands which are spread over an area the size of India - with a population of only seventeen thousand.

Rarotonga, near the southern end of the Cook Islands chain, is the capital island. It originally also gave its name to the entire island group, although at times it was also known by the alternative name of Tumu-te-varovaro. 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 it was Polynesians from Iva, an island of an unknown location in what is now French Polynesia, who settled in Rarotonga and the Society Islands, including Tahiti. The original Neolithic Oceania inhabitants were known as mana'une or tangata enua ('people of the land').

According to Hawaiian and Cook Islands legend, during the great two hundred-year migratory period which began at the close of the tenth century or the beginning of the eleventh, two united expeditions arrived from Samoa and Tahiti under the leaderships of Karika and Tangiia (Tangi'ia). They established themselves, and subdued the inhabitants of Rarotonga a total of twenty-nine generations before the nineteenth century (about the end of the twelfth century).

An ariki (high chief) governed each of the islands. Some islands had several ariki. Below them were mataiapo (chiefs) and rangatira (subchiefs or nobility). Land was divided into sections known as tapere, which remains today's form of land division. Pukapuka Atoll in the northern Cook Islands became in 1595 the first of the islands to be sighted by a European, and nothing on the islands would be the same.

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(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 Tangiia 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 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).)

c.450 BC

According to legend, the ancestors of the Rarotongans (and indeed all Polynesians in Neolithic Oceania) dwell in Atia-te-varinga-nui ('Great Atia-covered-with rice'), which corresponds with ancient India. The name refers to a legend in which the people had originally eaten a disgusting form of food - mud. A famous ancestor had introduced them to rice.

Over the next fifteen generations (or about three hundred and seventy-five years), Rarotongan legends of the Polynesians are silent. During this time, they are probably migrating along the coast of South Asia and South-East Asia and throughout the Strait of Molucca.

The Ganges plain saw the rise of the first northern Indian kingdoms from around the sixteenth century BC onwards, following the eastwards expansion of areas of Indo-Aryan control

1st century AD

According to Rarotongan legend, Tangaroa (not to be confused with the god of the same name) discovers a new form of food, one which is white. It replaces rice as the main food of the people. It is not clear what this food may be, possibly the egg of the maleo. Tangaroa's father-in-law, Vai-takere, introduces the breadfruit.

Tangaroa has a son by the name of Māui by Vaine-uenga (who is the wife of Ataranga). Māui is a great Polynesian hero. After overcoming a sea monster he travels to the Cook Islands, Tonga, the North Island of New Zealand, Tahiti, the Hawaiian Islands, the Marquesas, and back to the Cook Islands, before returning westward to Na-vao, the land of departed spirits.

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.575

Mataru is ariki of 'Upolu in Samoa around this time. He has a son named Te memeru who also becomes ariki. The descent continues through Te Emaema-a-rangi, then Emā, who lives in the late seventh century.

c.650

Once again according to legend, Rarotongans visit or colonise a large number of Pacific islands, including New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, the New Hebrides (now called Vanuatu), and Easter Island.

c.700

The sons of Emā, direct descendant of Mataru, are Taaki (or Tawhaki in Māori) and Karii (Karihi in Māori), who flourish around this time. Tawhaki, whom the Māori consider the eldest, is their shared ancestor. Karii, whom the Rarotongans consider the eldest, is the ancestor of the Rarotongans (Cook Islanders).

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

c.875

Rarotongan legend ascribes jealousy to the actions of Oro-keva-uru, ariki of Ha'apai, Tonga's central group. He requires his sister, Apakura, to offer for sacrifice her handsome and gifted son, Tu-ranga-taua. Failing to get help to avenge herself in her own land, Apakura travels to 'Avaiki (Savāi'i in Samoa), where she secures the support of Te Ariki-taania and his men.

They invade Ha'apai and, after Vaka-tau, a chief of equal rank, kills Oro-keva in single combat, the invaders massacre the population. Apopo-te-akatinatina and Apopo-te-ivi-roa, two of Apakura's brothers, and a few followers escape to Rarotonga where they become the first inhabitants of the islands. The Samoans appoint Vaea-ma-kapua, Apakura's youngest son, as the new ruler.

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 first settle in Rarotonga (the Cook Islands) and the Society Islands, including Tahiti. The original inhabitants are called mana'une or tangata enua ('people of the land'). The Kainuku line of chiefs is descended from these original inhabitants.

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

900s - 1000s

According to Hawaiian and other Polynesian legends, after a period of quiet there is considerable activity which involves migrations, legends, and personalities, starting at the close of the tenth century or the beginning of the eleventh.

A great migratory wave ensues for about two centuries, 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.1025

After the death of Rangi, the legendary first ariki of Mangaia, Rarotongans under Kateateoru go to that island and settle peacefully on the west coast. Later the Mangaians drive them away, but a new Rarotongan force invades and is again driven off.

fl c.1050?

Ariki. Built coral road of Ara Metua on Rarotonga.

mid-1200s

Two united expeditions arrive from Samoa and Tahiti, under the leaderships of Karika and Tangi'ia. They establish themselves and subdue the inhabitants of Rarotonga.

Hawaiian legend states that Rarotonga is one of the islands of Kahiki, that vast region which consists of all islands in the Pacific Ocean to the south of Hawaii, from Easter Island westwards to Malaysia.

Another legend, one which is recited by Te Ariki-Tara-are, last high priest of Rarotonga, 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.

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

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 Rarotonga 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.

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.

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

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 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').

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.

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

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).

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

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

fl late 1100s

Ariki founder. Ruled Arorangi & Ngati Tangi'ia.

c.1200 - 1300

New Zealand becomes the last major habitable land mass settled by humans, when Polynesians arrive by canoe from Rarotonga (now the Cook Islands). The Polynesians became the ancestors of the Māori, who are not known by that name until the arrival of Europeans. They spread around the New Zealand islands, dividing themselves into tribes and sub-tribes.

1595 - 1606

The Cook Islands (also called Rarotonga after the largest island) are first sighted by a European, the Spanish explorer, Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, who spots Pukapuka Atoll in the northern Cook Islands and names it San Bernardo. Pedro Fernandez de Qurioz, a Portuguese navigator who is sailing for Spain, stops at Rakahanga Atoll for supplies in 1606. He calls it Peregrina.

The Battle of Monte Claros on 17 June 1665 took place in the third stage of the war between Portugal and Spain, when the Spanish king attempted a sledgehammer approach to cracking the Portuguese nut, although Monte Claros delivered Spain a very bloody nose which effectively terminated the prospect of any further major engamements

1765

Britain's Commodore John Byron spots Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira's island of Pukapuka which the latter had discovered in 1595. The commodore renames it Danger Island.

1773 - 1777

British navigator and explorer Captain James Cook 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.

1788

Britain's Captain William Cropton Sever reaches Tongareva, which he names Penrhyn's Island.

1789

Captain William Bligh of HMS Bounty is the first European to sight Aitutaki Atoll following the famous mutiny against him. Later, American, British, and Russian explorers reach other islands.

Rebelling against Captain William Bligh (pictured here) and his autocratic governance of HMS Bounty, Fletcher Christian and much of the crew eventually found a safe, if troubled, home on Pitcairn Island

1821 - 1823

British missionary John Williams places two Tahitian preachers on Aitutaki Atoll to convert the natives to Christianity. The first Christian church is built in Arutanga on Aitutaki Atoll in 1823. Within two years, almost the entire island is converted.

Natives are convinced to move from inland to coastal areas, to adhere to strict Christian principles, and to build many large limestone churches. A huge population decline occurs following the introduction of disease. Blackbirders (kidnappers for slaves) flourish and also help to diminish the population.

1880s

Russian cartographer, Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern, renames Rarotonga to the more internationally-familiar Cook Islands after the British explorer of that name.

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

1888 - 1891

Rarotonga, also known as the Cook Islands, becomes a British protectorate. The Cook Islands Federation is formed on 5 June 1891, which includes Avarua.