Rarotonga Atoll

Rarotonga is a mountainous volcanic island in the southern Cook Islands, its valleys descending to a reef-fringed coast. Polynesian communities established settlements and chiefly lineages here before European ships arrived. Oral traditions remember voyaging ancestors and their relationships with other islands across the Pacific. The island’s valleys supplied cultivated food, while the surrounding reef and open sea provided fish and other resources.

In 1823 Papeiha, a Christian convert from Bora Bora, came to Rarotonga after working on Aitutaki. His mission opened a period of religious and political change among the island’s communities, while the older chiefly titles and land relationships remained central to local life. The island’s steep interior and narrow coastal belt framed these communities and their connections by sea.

The later city of Avarua lies here.