Far East Kingdoms

Ngati Tangi'ia / Takitumu Tribe (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).

The Ngati Tangi'ia claim descent from Tangi'ia, the legendary Tahitian chief who conquered Rarotonga in the late twelfth century, during the Neolithic Oceania period. They divided into six tribes and set up a political organisation which included the establishment of ariki (high chiefs). The tribe's name means 'the offspring of Tangi'ia'.

The tribe is also known as Takitumu after the name of Tangi'ia's canoe which also figures in legends in New Zealand and Samoa. Further, Takitumu is the name of a district in south-eastern Rarotonga, where the people from the Takitumu canoe originally settled. High chiefs of this part of Rarotonga have the title 'Pa Te Ariki Ūpokotini'.

No traditional records trace Tangi'ia's relationship to other members of the party in his canoe, other than Tangi'ia adopting a man named Pa, who was the son of a high-ranking Tahitian chief named Iro, and from whom a line of chiefs descended. The other line descends from Kainuku Ariki, high chief of the Tongaiti, who themselves were descended from earlier settlers on the island and who formed an alliance with Tangi'ia's people.

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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).)

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. Then they 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), but he also commands the Arorangi. 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.

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'

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.

fl 1200s

Son of Tahitian chief, Iro. Adopted by Tangi'ia.

fl 1200s

Joint ariki (for a time). Chief of the Tongaiti.

1200s

Due to his high rank, Pa becomes titular head of the Ngati Tangi'ia tribe. For a time, Kainuku Ariki, high chief of the Tongaiti, is joint chief with him. The Tongaiti nevertheless retain separate lands and a separate identity.

Some traditions mention that more immigrants to augment the population have been brought in from Raiatea in the Society Islands of modern French Polynesia. This is thought to be the case because there are oral traditions of Cook Islanders returning to visit Raiatea.

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

fl 1240s - 1260s

Son of Pa? Ariki.

fl 1260s - 1270s

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fl 1270s - 1280s

Son? Remainder of name unknown.

fl 1280s - 1290s

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fl 1290s

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fl 1290s

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fl 1290s - 1300s

Son? Remainder of name unknown.

fl 1300s

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fl 1300s - 1320s

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fl 1340s - 1360s

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fl 1360s

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fl 1360s - 1370s

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fl 1370s - 1380s

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fl 1380s - 1400s

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fl 1400s - 1420s

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fl 1460s

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fl 1480s - 1500s

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fl 1500s - 1520s

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fl 1560s - 1580s

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fl 1580s - 1600s

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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

fl 1600s - 1610s

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fl 1610s

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fl 1610s - 1620s

Son? Remainder of name unknown.

fl 1620s

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fl 1650s - 1670s

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fl 1670s - 1680s

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fl 1680s - 1690s

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fl 1690s - 1710s

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fl 1710s - 1730s

Son? Remainder of name unknown.

fl 1730s - 1750s

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fl 1750s - 1770s

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fl 1770s - 1790s

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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.

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

fl 1790s - 1810s

Son?

1810s - 1855

Son? Joint ariki (for a time). Chief of the Tongaiti.

1855 - 1895

Dau. Female ariki.

1855 - 1895

Pa Ūpoko Takau is also known as Mother Pa or Mary Pa. She marries Opura, but they have no children so she adopts Maretū, the son of a Rarotongan woman and a Frenchman. Maretū succeeds her.

1888 - 1891

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

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

1895 - 1906

Son. Ariki.

1901 - 1907

The Cook Islands are incorporated into the British colony of New Zealand on 11 June 1901. New Zealand in 1907 becomes a self-governing dominion which effectively is independent of the United Kingdom. Mere'ana, the ariki of Arorangi, however, has no children. Upon her death the title passes to Nāpā II, who is of another line of the same family.

1906 - 1924

Sister. Female ariki.

1924

Upon the death of Pa Te Tianui (Pa Ariki Teteianui), there are no children to succeed her so she is instead succeeded by Pa Te Pā'eru Te Rito, who is elected from another line.

1924 - 1990

Distant relation. Female ariki.

1940s

An airstrip is built on Rarotonga. Together with better maritime connections this triggers the start of large-scale migration to New Zealand. Nevertheless, the population is fairly stable as Rarotonga experiences inwards 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

1979 - 1987

Pa Te Tianui is a vocal critic of the policies of her husband, Sir Tom Davis, twice premier of the Cook Islands, who tends toward laissez-faire economics.

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.

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.

1990 - On

Daughter. Female ariki.

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