This feels like a fishing community. They still spear fish and drop it in containers or vaka (wa’a or canoe, boat). The locals keep their land, they may give 60 year leases but after that time any businesses would automatically revert bcak to the family. Must of the outer rims around the island is where you find the churches and the marae is located on the inner rim. The marae = heiau = sacred site. I missed this word in Rarotongan but it is most like ahupua’a, land division, and it is still true that the land ‘slice’ stays with the legacy family. Piko started at mid point/center and slices were given to the families so the whole family lived in that marae from mauna to mauka previously.
15 separate islands make up Kuki Airani (Cook Islands) and depending on which side you came from your influence and language was colored by it (Tahiti, French Polynesia or New Zealand).
A lot of Aussies and Kiwis visit. Fijians were also very prominent.
We met a pair on honeymoon from Norway. They were so much fun. A teacher and businessman. He was a romantic planner and did some amazing things to make her honeymoon and birthday special.
We met a father and son from New Zealand and the wife/mother had left to return home the day before owns a bespoke Māori experience business. They offer Māori dining and natural tour experiences.
I love that everyone knows Hawai’i here. There are a lot of local and aboriginal connections.
- By the way, I sprinkle Hawaiian and English also into my blog when describing certain language connections because they make more sense to me. It is very general but if I were to explain it these were the closest comparisons I would see or felt like was contextually similar. No disservice or over simplification was meant to any population. And please forgive any misinterpretation, it was my attempt at understanding the meanings translated.
Monkiyo's Musings 