Far East Kingdoms

Tongaiti / Kainuku (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 Kainuku tribal name was for the legendary chief, Kainuku Ariki (Chief Kainuku). The Tongaiti settled Rarotonga prior to the arrival of Tangi'ia, legendary Tahitian chief who conquered the island at the end of the twelfth century, during the Neolithic Oceania period. One of two lines of chiefs of the Ngati Tangi'ia is descended from Kainuku Ariki, while it was his people 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). 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

Joint ariki of the Ngati Tangi'ia (for a time).

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.

1300s

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.

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

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.