Sidestep: Cook Islands as Hawaiiki ?

The Cook Islands are the news at the moment. We understand they never had a collective name for the islands as a whole. It seems that to change it is therefore not a cultural one. Regardless, here is something to think about.

It is now well established that most of the Maori migratory canoes came from Raiatea, Tahaa, Porapora, Tahiti and some of the islands of the Cook Group. Hawaiki therefore is not a single island and not groups of islands, but a whole region – (like Australasia). Raiatea was the likely spiritual hub of the region and evidence points to the Arawa, Tainui, Aotea and Matahourua sailing from this point. However, many of the events connected with the 1350 A.D. migration, (said to have occurred in Hawaiki), are now considered to have taken place in Tahiti, Rarotonga and Mangaia, and now the Cook Group must go on record as part of the traditional Hawaiki. Even now, there are places in Rarotonga with such names...like the Hawaiki Villas.

Being migratory it is likely that they came from other islands (Hawaiiki), settled in the Cook Group briefly and moved south from there. Prior to the so called 1350 ‘fleet’ trips were made to Aotearoa from Rarotonga.

There is a story about Tangihia and movements of peoples based on a dispute. That fits in with our theory of migration as escape from dispute and war rather than exploratory discovery. Polynesian Maori did not learn war once they arrived in Aotearoa - they were fully engaged in it prior to leaving. Toi, the son of Iro, was linked to Raiatea and eventually sailed off never to return. Uenuku is a famous Maori ancestor, yet he too was born in Rarotonga.

Arorangi Beach where Tainui and Tokomaru are said to have departed from

There is much to read and learn but it seems any ‘migration’ was in a line where the final departure was always the Cook Islands. The “maori’ therefore came from (place of last departure) Rarotonga it seems. Ngatangiia is the harbour the alleged fleet left from. We at TW16 still believe immigration here was in stages over probably 40 years, not a fleet, and certainly no more than four at one time. We cannot prove that and none can disprove it. All we have is stories handed down and various islands stories sometimes clash with other Pacific Inland stories. Even Maori traditions don’t always agree.

The point is that all stories have a portion of truth and it seems to us that they are all true based on their point of origin. But Rarotonga was at the very least was a migratory stopover. It was like Dubai is to travelling to Europe...a stopover.

The point of this is the name 'Maori'. Rarotongans also refer to themselves as Maori. Why? The name never existed before about 1820. But the Rarotongan language is very similar to that of Aotearoa. That alone suggests the amount of time the migrants from Raiatea spent there before moving south. The language could easily be picked up in a generation. It turns out the travellers stayed in Rarotonga for 3 generations! Rarotongans regard Maori as being the language of the ancestral homeland...their homeland...Rarotonga. There are 7 dialects. Even NZ had more than three up until about 1750.

Of the celebrated New Zealand canoes, it is the Takitumu about which the people of Rarotonga claim to know best. Taki-tumu was the canoe of Tangihia, but according to Percy Smith it was not the same vessel that later formed part of the 1350 A.D. migration. Takitumu is said to have been a vaka purua, or double canoe, and she sailed away to New Zealand commanded by the chief Tamatea-takapini-enua who left no issue in Rarotonga. There are descendants however, from his brother Tamatea-kau-kura who remained behind. The marae was Tarai-rangi at Matavera.

When you read the accounts of canoes going back and forth and Pounamu being brought back and ones such as Tai-te-atai' who now declared he would henceforth be known as a tane rongo nui or man or great renown, and renamed his canoe Tainui, a name which one gathers from the narrator, also applied to himself. The following are the names of persons stated to have left Aitutaki for New Zealand on board Tainui: Tai-roa, Tu-te-auru, Tai-kura-vero, Tai-uenuku, Tai-mata-kino-tangata, Tai-vai-to-taki, Tai-kai-vao, Tai-tu-taua-rangi, Torere-nui-a-rua, Tai-manawa-po-atu, Rongo-mai-te-auru, Tu-ranga-nini, Tao-paenga, Te Aovavana, Te Verovero, Tai-te-tara, Te Rangi-ua-take, Tainui, Tai-te-iiri, Rongo-mai-te-auru-rangi. Confused? The history is varied and complicated depending on where or whom you hear it from. With all the stories that abound, they are not all correct. Much has been lost in translation, traditional, need for tradition, pride of connection and gradual change in custom, religion as well as mixing that of those who were here first (as stated below)

It is from the chiefs of the canoes that formed the fleet of 1350 that Maori aristocracy loves to trace descent; the descent from the old tangata-whenua, or previous migrations, is with many tribes ignored or made little of. There is plenty of evidence that this last migration was composed of people more advanced in ideas and of far greater warlike powers than the original inhabitants; and it is clear that within a few generations they had practically conquered and absorbed the others, often enslaving them; for it is stated in Hamiora Pio's MSS. that the tangata-whenua were a peaceful people, not like the ferocious cannibals of the fleet. Indeed, it is probable that these latter people brought cannibalism with them. In the mountainous country of the Urewera, tribes are to be seen the purest descendants of the older inhabitants, who, although very much mixed with the later migration, still show some difference in appearance that approximates them more to the Morioris of the Chatham Islands, who are no doubt the same people.

Rarotongan adze

So there it is. Not everyone will disagree and one will say no we are wrong, it is this instead, and another will have another version of reality. The above is just another tradition to add to the confusion of oral-history. This in no way suggests the original inhabitants (tangata whenua) were from Rarotonga, just that the 'maori' immigrants passed through Rarotonga and some of them took a very long time to finally depart. As Rarotonga was only inhabited from about 800AD this explains a lot. The migration canoes did not all depart and arrive at the same time, far from it. They were progressive migrations, all fleeing a war they lost and establishing new religious practice as a result. The later arrivals were the most violent and the ones to practice cannibalism. See the following post - http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2016/03/08/SideStep-Hawaiki-Mecca-of-the-Pacific