History And Traditions Of Rarotonga

Author : R. G. Crocombe
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780994106810
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (68 download)

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Download or read book Akapapaʻanga, Kōrero Tupuna, E Te Ākonoʻanga Ture ʻenua O Te Pā ʻenua Tonga O Te Kūki ʻAirani written by R. G. Crocombe and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The focus of this book is the Southern Cook Islands and its people. Since Ron Crocombe wrote his pioneering works Land Tenure in the Cook Islands in 1961 and 1964 (when anthropology was still a fledgling discipline), and edited and published Richard Gilson's 1952 thesis as a book, The Cook Islands 1820-1950, no other detailed analysis of Cook Islands history and customary law has been published. The purpose of this book is to re-examine primary sources, to synthesize other peoples scholarly work, and to place Ron Crocombe's and Ross Holmes research into a book which provides a detailed record of pre-European Southern Cook Islands customary law and society, and the impact which Europeans have had thereon. Fortunately we are now in a better position to interpret and understand customary evidence than the authors and Courts in the Cook Islands previously were, as there is now a relatively large volume of source material, much of which has not been previously analysed or readily accessible. The suppression of custom that occurred in New Zealand also occurred in the Cook Islands, initially through the LMS. Subsequently the New Zealand administration introduced the New Zealand education system in the Cook Islands, which prohibited the use of the Cook Islands language in schools, and taught Cook Islanders to be good Europeans. The inferiority of many of the customs and institutions was impressed upon the minds of Cook Islanders. The New Zealand administration had no interest in Cook Islands custom, despite it being aware that the rules and practice of the Land Court were an introduced system that was in many ways is opposed to custom. It refused to hold an inquiry into Cook Islands custom. The Cook Islands Courts have from the commencement of the Court system in 1902 down to the present time made determinations on customary law in the absence of sufficient evidence as to what customary law was. One purpose of this book is to ensure that relevant information about Maori customary laws is available. The detailed research which Ross Holmes has carried out over the past 8 years has re-written Rarotongan history which had been distorted by widely believed invented traditions. He has established that a number of the 'customs' relied upon by the Courts were European invented traditions (including the doctrine of primogeniture). He has also established that during the LMS era some of the ariki of Rarotonga, and others, acquired substantial areas of land, and titles, that they had no customary law entitlement to. There are accordingly many historical injustices in Rarotonga that remain to be righted."--Publisher's information.