Cook Islanders

{{See also|Cook Islands permanent residency}}

From a legal standpoint, there is no such thing as a Cook Islands citizenship. The Cook Islands is a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand and is part of the Realm of New Zealand. As such, Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens.Cook Islands Constitution Act 1964, s 6.{{cite web |url=https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/australia-and-pacific/cook-islands/new-zealand-high-commission-to-the-cook-islands/about-cook-islands/ |title=About Cook Islands |publisher=MFAT |access-date=5 November 2022}}

The Cook Islands does not issue its own passports, a privilege usually assumed by virtually all sovereign countries, but places this responsibility in the hands of the New Zealand Government 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.

{{Quotation|text=A person shall have the status of a permanent resident of the Cook Islands if he was born in the Cook Islands, and -...

1. Either or both of his parents had the status of a permanent resident of the Cook Islands at the date of his birth; or
2. In the case of a child who was born after the death of his father to a mother who did not have the status at the date of birth of the child, his father had that status at the date of his death; or
3. He was adopted by a person who at the date of adoption had that status

|title=Cook Islands Constitution|source=Constitution Amendment (No 9) Act 1980-81, Article 76A(1)}}

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status to others, qualifications to be held by a permanent resident, and conditions under which that status may be withdrawn.Article 76A(2)-(4)

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.{{cite news |title=Mark Brown proposes Cook Islands passport |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/530993/mark-brown-proposes-cook-islands-passport |access-date=25 December 2024 |work=RNZ |date=16 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225100533/https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/530993/mark-brown-proposes-cook-islands-passport |archive-date=25 December 2024}} 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.{{cite news |last1=Mika |first1=Talaia |title=Cooks PM assures new passport won’t affect constitutional ties with New Zealand |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/531290/cooks-pm-assures-new-passport-won-t-affect-constitutional-ties-with-new-zealand |access-date=25 December 2024 |work=RNZ |date=19 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225100652/https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/531290/cooks-pm-assures-new-passport-won-t-affect-constitutional-ties-with-new-zealand |archive-date=25 December 2024|url-status=live}} In late December 2024, Peters clarified that the Cook Islands would not be able to have its own passport, citizenship and United Nations 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.{{cite news |last1=Fotheringham |first1=Caleb |title=Cook Islands passport would require giving up NZ citizenship - spokesperson |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/537456/cook-islands-passport-would-require-giving-up-nz-citizenship-spokesperson |access-date=25 December 2024 |work=RNZ |date=23 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225101232/https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/537456/cook-islands-passport-would-require-giving-up-nz-citizenship-spokesperson |archive-date=25 December 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Ng |first1=Kelly |title=Cook Islands wants its own passport. New Zealand says no |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c623ng6wnweo |access-date=25 December 2024 |work=BBC News |date=23 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225095621/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c623ng6wnweo |archive-date=25 December 2024}}

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.{{rp|page=18}}{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cook-islands/|title=Cook Islands: People|website=World Fact book|access-date=13 August 2020}} Cook Islands Māori share many ancestral links with the Māori of New Zealand and the native people (Mā'ohi) of French Polynesia. Other Cook Islanders are also of Pacific Islander (primarily Polynesian), European (Papa'a), or Asian descent.

Results for the usual resident population.

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".

{{expand section|date=August 2020}}

{{main|Culture of the Cook Islands}}

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, 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.{{rp|page=20}}

File:CICC CHURCH IN AVARUA, RAROTONGA, COOK ISLANDS.jpg, Rarotonga.]]

File:TITIKAVEKA CHURCH, RAROTONGA, COOK ISLANDS.jpg

• Cook Islands permanent residency

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160129075739/http://www.cookislands.de/index.php?did=cookisstatus.pdf The Cook Islands' unique constitutional and international status; page 9]

*Cook Islanders

Category:New Zealand nationality law