Cook Islands History

COVER REPORT: Pacific reacts to seabed mining

Cook Islands’ best kept secret may not so much be in the beauty of its scattered islands, likened by its tourism industry promoters to “fragrant frangipani petals floating across 2.2 million square kilometres of a seductive, sensual ocean” but in the abundance of manganese nodules in that ocean space that contains enough cobalt to supply the world for the next 500 years or so. “We also have a Seabed Minerals National Policy that’s been completed and also the model agreement which any company coming into the country to conduct seabed mining will have to comply with. The legislations are in place and they are a means of assisting the seabed sector to develop in the Cook Islands as well as in the Pacific. So we are happy to share with our Pacific brothers what we’ve learnt in the process of having our legislation enacted,” Lynch added. It has two other subsidiaries—Nauru Ocean Resources Incorporated and Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd—being sponsored by Nauru and Tonga to explore international waters while prospecting applications have also been put forward by Australian owned Bluewater Metals, the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) and other companies to Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, PNG, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu. “PNG, being the mining capital of the region with an on-land Mining Act, is well advanced in terms of the application of that Act to the outer edges of their territorial sea, but having said that, they also have to cater for the seabed minerals resources within their EEZ and extended continental shelf,” said SOPAC’s DSMP team leader Akuila Tawake. “These three countries have something. But most Pacific countries don’t have anything in terms of national legislative frameworks. So that’s where this project comes in, to assist them in the development of their regulatory framework to ensure they have the platform for good governance and the administration of their seabed minerals,” Tawake added. “We are not creating a separate offshore mining act, our main legislation is the Mining Act 1992, it is sufficient and qualifies for offshore mining. We will just need to strengthen certain things like continental shelf issues and the outer limits of the water, things that will reflect offshore mining,” said Shadrach Himata, Deputy Secretary at PNG’s Department of Minerals Policy and Geohazards.

The Cook Islands Culture and History By Rene Thompson | WORLD OF ...

The Cook Islands Culture and History By Rene Thompson

The Cook Islands, located in the South Pacific near New Zealand, consists of fifteen small islands. Between French Polynesia and American Samoa, the Cook Islands occupy nearly a million square miles of ocean. With a total land area of just over 90 square miles, the Northern Cook Islands was formed by volcanoes, while the Southern islands are coral.

Today, tourism is the country’s top industry About 100,000 people travel to the Cook Islands each year, with most flying to and from the international airport on the island of Rarotonga. This island is home to about 15,000 residents, making it the largest population center on the islands.

It is believed that the islands were settled in about the 6th century by Polynesian travelers from Tahiti. As with many other island groups in the South Pacific, the Polynesians brought with them a rich culture, including the tiki ideology that spread throughout the region. The languages spoken here include English, Maori, Rarotongan (an indigenous language drawing from the Maori language of New Zealand), and Pukapukan. Words heard in the Cook Islands are often drawn from Tahitian, Samoan, and New Zealand Maori languages.

Islanders living in the Cook Islands are known for their wood carving. However, much of the earliest wood carvings, including tiki gods, were taken away by early Europeans or burned by missionaries. Although the Cook Islands no longer place such a strong spiritual emphasis on their carvings, there has been renewed interest in interesting younger residents of the Cook Islands in the islands’ history, culture, and heritage. In particular, the island of Atiu is known for its modern woodcarvings.

The Cook Islands are also known for their elaborate traditional dances. Many of their dances express ancient stories and folklore. Each of the fifteen islands has its own distinctive style of dance. Children often begin learning the dance as soon as they can walk. Women dance with swaying hips and men with knees kept slightly bent. The dancers are accompanied by music and singers, usually in the native language. Dancing costumes consist of bark cloth covered with bark strips, leaves, and grass, often adorned with seeds, shells, and beautiful tropical flowers and accompanied by an elaborate flowered headdress.

If you want to take in the culture of the Cook Islands, many resorts on the islands feature dance presentations. In Rarotonga Vibram FiveFingers men’s Flow, you’ll find the Cook Islands Cultural Village, where you can learn about the various rituals forming the Cook Islands’ cultural history.

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