The indigenous Eastern Polynesian people of the 15 islands and atolls of the Cook Islands, descended from Society Islands (Tahitian) voyagers. Oral tradition recorded in Te Ariki Tara Are's 'History and Traditions of Rarotonga' describes waves of settlement and the arrival of the Takitumu confederation of vaka (tribes) on Rarotonga, whose ariki (paramount chief) lines still hold ceremonial and House of Ariki authority today alongside the modern self-governing state.
Not an ending: Cook Islands Māori remain the people of the Cook Islands. The map hands off to the Kingdom of Rarotonga and its successors.
Indigenous oral-tradition account of Rarotongan settlement, genealogy and the ariki system, recorded by a Cook Islands historian and chief.
Standard scholarly history covering the islands from first sustained European contact through the colonial period.