Cook Islands Constitution Day – August 4, 2024

History of Cook Islands Constitution Day

The people of the Cook Islands trace their ancestry back to 1500 B.C. — a time the Māori, famous for their navigational abilities, bravery, and combat skills, inhabited the Polynesian islands. The Māori were born warriors and explorers, developing a complex and highly accurate navigational system using the stars. Their daring exploits far surpassed those of European explorers who would arrive on their shores thousands of years later. Early Polynesians arrived on Rarotonga — the most densely populated part of the present-day Cook Islands — sometime around 800 A.D. Roughly 87% of Cook Islanders have Māori ancestry.

Alvaro de Mendana was the first European explorer to discover the Cook Islands in 1595, followed by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros in 1606. However, Captain James Cook is synonymous with this region. Contrary to popular belief, Captain Cook did not name the islands after himself when he sighted them in 1773. Russian map makers arrived at Rarotonga some 50 years after Captain Cook and decided to call the place after him.

The arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1800s had a powerful influence on the Cook Islands. Many cultural practices, such as singing, dancing, and drumming, were banned, which disrupted the locals’ way of life. By 1888, the Cook Islands fell under British rule because the Crown feared that the French might seize this expansive tropical paradise. In 1901, the colony of New Zealand annexed the Cook Islands, ignoring opposition from the tribal chiefs who independently ruled the islands. The Cook Islands would remain a protectorate until 1965 when Sir Albert Henry was elected Prime Minister, and the country became independent. New Zealand and the Cook Islands still share a connection, but the islanders govern themselves while New Zealand is responsible for its national defense.