The Para O Tane Palace is a historic building in

Avarua Avarua (meaning "Two Harbours" in Cook Islands Māori) is a town and district in the north of the island of Rarotonga, and is the national capital of the Cook Islands. The town is served by Rarotonga International Airport (IATA Airport Code: R ...

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

in the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

. Built in the 1830s by Makea Pori Ariki, it was later the residence of Makea Takau Ariki and the place where she signed a treaty making the Cook Islands a British protectorate in 1888.

History

The palace is located on the grounds of the Taputapuatea ''

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

'', and was originally built in the 1830s as a single-story structure made of limestone and timber. It was later rebuilt as a two-story structure by Makea Takau Ariki, and served as the location of her royal court. Both the 1888 proclamation declaring the Cook Islands to be a British protectorate and the 1901 instrument of annexation by New Zealand were signed in the palace grounds. Beatrice Grimshaw gives a brief description of the palace during her visit to Rarotonga in 1907.

We walked through the blazing hot sun of the tropic afternoon, down the palm-shaded main street of Avarua town, to the great grassy enclosure that surrounds the palace of the queen. One enters through a neat white gate; inside are one or two small houses, a number of palms and flowering bushes, and at the far end, a stately two-storeyed building constructed of whitewashed concrete, with big railed-in verandahs, and handsome arched windows. This is Makea's palace, but her visitors do not go there to look for her. In true South Sea Islander fashion, she keeps a house for show and one for use.

The palace was badly damaged in a cyclone in 1942 or 1943, and later allowed to fall into ruins. It was restored and rebuilt between 1989 and 1993 by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

architect

Harry Turbott Harold Arthur Turbott (16 December 1930 – 4 March 2016) was a New Zealand architect and landscape architect. He was the first New Zealander to gain a university degree in landscape architecture. Early life and education Turbott was born on 16 ...

and a team of students from the Auckland University School of Architecture.

References

Avarua Buildings and structures in the Cook Islands {{CookIslands-stub