For individual islands named "Cook Island", see
Cook Island.
The Cook Islands (Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) are a
self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand. The fifteen
small islands in this South Pacific Ocean country have a total land area of 240
square kilometres (92.7 sq mi), but the
Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1.8 million square kilometres
(0.7 million sq mi) of ocean.[1]
The main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (c.10,000), where there
is an international airport. There is also a much larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, particularly the
North Island; in the 2006 census, 58,008 self-identified as
being of ethnic Cook Island Māori descent.[2]
With over 90,000 visitors travelling to the islands in 2006, tourism is the country's number
one industry, and the leading element of the economy, far ahead of offshore
banking, pearls, marine and fruit exports.
Defence is the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands and
at its request. In recent times, the Cook Islands has adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy.
Politics
-
The politics of the Cook Islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary
representative democratic associated
state, whereby the Queen of New Zealand, represented in the Cook Islands
by the Queen's Representative, is Head of
State and the Chief Minister is the head of government. There is a pluriform
multi-party system and the islands are self-governing in free association with New Zealand
and fully responsible for internal affairs. New Zealand retains some responsibility for external affairs, in consultation with
the Cook Islands. In recent years the Cook Islands has taken on more of its own external affairs and as of 2005 has diplomatic relations in its own name with eighteen other countries. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative
power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of the Cook Islands.
The Cook Islands are not United Nations full members but participate in
WHO and UNESCO.
The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Notable Dates in Cook Island History
1596 - Spaniard Alvaro de Mendana is the first European to sight the islands.
1773 - Captain James Cook explores the islands and names them the Hervey Islands. Fifty
years later they are renamed in his honour.
1821 - English and Tahitian missionaries arrive, become the first non-native
settlers.
1888 - Cook Islands are proclaimed a British protectorate and a single federal parliament
is established.
1901 - The Cook Islands are annexed to New Zealand.
1924 - The All Blacks Invincibles stop in
Rarotonga on their way to the United Kingdom and play a friendly match against a scratch Rarotongan team.
1946 - Legislative Council is established. For the first time since 1912, the territory
has direct representation.
1965 - The Cook Islands become a self-governing territory in free association with New
Zealand. Albert Henry, leader of the Cook Islands Party, is elected as the territory's first prime minister.
1974 - Albert Henry is knighted by Queen Elizabeth
II
1979 - Sir Albert Henry is found guilty of
electoral fraud and stripped of his premiership and his knighthood. Tom Davis becomes
Premier.
1981 - Constitution is amended. Parliament grows from 22 to 24 seats and the
parliamentary term is extended from four to five years. Tom Davis is knighted.
1985 - Rarotonga Treaty is open for signing in the Cook Islands creating a nuclear free
zone in the South Pacific.
1986 - In January 1986, following the rift between New Zealand and the USA in respect of
the ANZUS security arrangements Prime Minister Tom Davis declared the Cook Islands a neutral country, because he considered that
New Zealand (which has control over the islands' defence and foreign policy) was no longer in a position to defend the islands.
The proclamation of neutrality meant that the Cook Islands would not enter into a military relationship with any foreign power,
and, in particular, would prohibit visits by US warships. Visits by US naval vessels were allowed to resume by Henry's
Government.
1991 The Cook Islands signed a treaty of friendship and co-operation with France,
covering economic deyelopment, trade and surveillance of the islands' EEZ. The establishment of closer relations with France was
widely regarded as an expression of the Cook Islands' Government's dissatisfaction with existing arrangements with New Zealand
which was no longer in a position to defend the Cook Islands.
1995 The French Government resumed its Programme of nuclear-weapons testing at Mururoa
Atoll in September 1995 upsetting the Cook Islands. Henry was fiercely critical of the decision and dispatched a vaka
(traditional voyaging canoe) with a crew of Cook Islands' traditional warriors to protest near the test site. The tests were
concluded in January 1996 and a moratorium was placed on future testing by the French government.
1997 - Full diplomatic relations established with China.
1997 - In November, Cyclone Martin kills at least six people; 80% of buildings are
damaged and the black pearl industry suffered severe losses.
2000 - Full diplomatic relations concluded with France.
2002 - Prime Minister Terepai Maoate is ousted from government following second vote of
no-confidence in his leadership.
2004 - Prime Minister Robert Woonton visits China; Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao grants $16m
in development aid.
2006 - Parliamentary elections held. The Democratic Party keeps majority of seats in
parliament, but parliament is unable to meet due to petitions filed by the Cook Islands Party over alleged voting
irregularities.
Geography
-
The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand, between French
Polynesia and Fiji. There are fifteen major islands, spread over 2.2 million square
kilometres of ocean, divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands, and the Northern Cook Islands of
coral atolls.[3]
The islands were formed by volcanic activity; the northern group is older and consists of six atolls (sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth). The climate is moderate to
tropical.
The fifteen islands are grouped as follows:
- Low islands of the Southern group
History
-
The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th Century A.D. by Polynesian people who migrated from nearby Tahiti, to the southeast.[4]
Spanish ships visited the islands in the late sixteenth century; the first written record of
contact with the Islands came with the sighting of Pukapuka by Spanish sailor Álvaro de Mendaña in 1595 who called it San Bernardo ("Saint Bernard"). Another Spaniard, Pedro Fernández de
Quirós, made the first recorded European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling it Gente Hermosa ("Beautiful People").
British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and
1779 and named the islands the Hervey Islands; the name "Cook Islands", in honour of Cook,
appeared on a Russian naval chart published in the 1880s.[5]
In 1813, John Williams, a missionary on the Endeavour (not the same ship as that of Cook), made the first official
sighting of the island of Rarotonga.[6]
The first recorded landing by Europeans was in 1814 by the Cumberland; trouble broke out between the sailors and the Islanders
and many were killed on both sides.[7]
The islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries arrived from England in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the
culture and many islanders continue to be Christian believers today.
The Cook Islands became a British protectorate
at their own request in 1888, mainly to thwart French expansionism. They were transferred to
New Zealand in 1901. They remained a New Zealand protectorate
until 1965, at which point they became a self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand. In that year, Albert
Henry of the Cook Islands Party was elected as the first Prime Minister. Sir Albert Henry led the country until he was accused of vote-rigging. He was succeeded
in 1978 by Tom Davis of the Democratic Party.
Today, the Cook Islands are essentially independent ("self-governing in free association with New Zealand") but are still
officially placed within New Zealand's sovereignty. New Zealand is tasked with overseeing
the country's foreign relations and defence. The Cook Islands are one of three New Zealand dependencies, along with Tokelau and Niue.
On June 11, 1980, the United States signed a treaty with
New Zealand specifying the maritime border between the Cook Islands and American Samoa
and also relinquishing its claim to the islands of Penrhyn Island, Pukapuka (Danger), Manihiki, and Rakahanga.
In 2006, the British television station Channel 4 broadcast the show Shipwrecked, filmed in the Cook Islands. The thirteenth season of CBS's Survivor series was also filmed in the Cook Islands during the summer of 2006. It was broadcast in the
autumn of 2006 as Survivor: Cook Islands.
In 2007, Les Stroud host/creator of the television show Survivorman taped an episode in the Cook Islands, surviving on his own for 7 days.
Culture
Float parade during the annual Maeva Nui celebrations.
- See also: Music of the Cook
Islands
Sport
- See also: Rugby union in the Cook
Islands
- See also: Rugby league in the Cook
Islands
- See also: Cook Islands national
football team
Rugby union is the most popular sport in the Cook Islands with football and rugby league also popular.[citation needed]
Miscellaneous
A popular art form on the islands is Tivaivai, often likened to quilting.
See also
References
External links