Cook Islanders are residents of the Cook Islands, which is composed of 15 islands and atolls in

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Cook Islands Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Cook Islands, although the Cook Islands is currently home to approximately 15–17% of the Cook Islands Maori population, with

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

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each having larger populations. Originating from Tahitian settlers in the sixth century, the Cook Islands Māori bear cultural affinities with New Zealand Māori and Tahitian Mā'ohi, although they also exhibit a unique culture and developed their own language, which is currently recognized as one of two official languages in the Cook Islands, according to the Te Reo Maori Act of 2003.

Citizenship and nationality

From a legal standpoint, there is no such thing as a Cook Islands

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

. The Cook Islands is a self-governing country in free association with

and is part of the Realm of New Zealand. As such, Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens. The Cook Islands does not issue its own

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

s, a privilege usually assumed by virtually all sovereign countries, but places this responsibility in the hands of the

New Zealand Government The New Zealand Government () is the central government through which political authority is exercised in New Zealand. As in most other parliamentary democracies, the term "Government" refers chiefly to the executive branch, and more specifica ...

which issues passports for New Zealand citizens who are also Cook Islands nationals. On the other hand, Cook Islands nationality is differentiated from that of the rest of the New Zealand citizens. These provisions setting out qualifications for the status of a permanent resident of the Cook Islands are supplemented by other legislation to regulate the granting of permanent resident status to others, qualifications to be held by a permanent resident, and conditions under which that status may be withdrawn. In mid October 2024, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown advocated the introduction of a separate Cook Islands passport while still retaining New Zealand citizenship. In response, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters warned that Brown's proposal would affect the Cook Island's free association relationship with New Zealand. In late December 2024, Peters clarified that the Cook Islands would not be able to have its own passport, citizenship and

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membership without becoming an independent country. Any changes to the territory's constitutional relationship with New Zealand would have to be decided by the Cook Islanders via a referendum.

Ethnic groups

According to the most recent 2016 census, 78.2% of Cook Islanders are of Cook Island Māori descent, 7.62% are Part-Māori from the native Polynesian people of the islands and 14.18% other ethnic origins. Cook Islands Māori share many ancestral links with the Māori of New Zealand and the native people (Mā'ohi) of

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

. Other Cook Islanders are also of Pacific Islander (primarily Polynesian), European ( Papa'a), or Asian descent. Results for the usual resident population.

Language

The official languages of the Cook Islands are English and Cook Islands Māori, an Eastern Polynesian language. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. It is simply called "Māori" when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as "Māori Kūki 'Āirani" or "Maori Kuki Airani".

Culture

Religious denomination

The religious distribution in the 2016 official census was as follows: The various Protestant groups account for 62.8% of the believers, the most followed denomination being the Cook Islands Christian Church with 49.1% (down from 53% in 2006). Other Protestant Christian groups include Seventh-Day Adventist (8.4%), Assemblies of God (3.8%), and Apostolic Church (2.1%). The main non-Protestant group was the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, with 17% of the population. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made up 4.4%. Only 2% or 323 people refused or did not respond to this question.

References

{{reflist

External links

The Cook Islands' unique constitutional and international status; page 9
*Cook Islanders New Zealand nationality law