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Cook Islands (New Zealand)

Rarotonga

by Zeljko Heimer, 12-DEC-1995

Description
Individual Island Flags?
Historical Flags

See also:

Description

British Blue Ensign with fifteen white five-pointed stars in a circle in the fly. The ratio is 1:2. The stars represent the 15 islands in the Cook Islands group. The use of the Blue Ensign refers to the British links of the Cooks, formerly as part of, and now as an independent state in free association with, New Zealand.

Stuart Park, 08-DEC-1995

The Cook Islands ensign is described and its symbolism explained in the Government of the Cook Islands website.

Santiago Dotor, 03-FEB-1999

Individual Island Flags?

Has anyone seen the flag of Penrhyn Island located East of Tokelau? Does it have its own flag?

Nozomi Kariyasu, 22-MAR-1999

The Cook Islands consist of two groups: the Southern (or Lower) and Northern Cook Islands. The Northern group is rather scattered and consists of:

Nassau
Palmerston (Avarau)
Penrhyn (Tongareva)
Manihiki (Humphrey)
Rakahanga (Reirson)
Pukapuka (Danger)
Suwarrow (Anchorage)

At the Government of the Cook Islands website there is a nice map of Penrhyn with a good history lesson - but no flag. Names: Te Pitaka (the Circle), Tongareva (Tonga floating in space). The present-day Maori name is Mangarongaro which developed from the name of one of the divisions of the large south-western islet. Penrhyn after the "Lady Penrhyn" commanded by Captain William Cropton Lever who landed on August 8th 1788. Another European name was Bennett Island. The Peruvians knew the island as the Island of the Four Evangelists.

Jarig Bakker, 22-MAR-1999

A person from the Cook Islands once wrote to me that "some of the larger islands in the southern group have a banner, particularly Atiu". Unfortunately, he did not know where to get hold of one, and the only Atiu person I could find has not replied my message as yet. However, it is not impossible that the 500 Penrhynese also have a banner, although they live in the Northern group of islands if I remember correctly.

Thanh-Tâm Lê, 22-MAR-1999

Historical Flags

1850-1888 Flag (Rarotonga Ensign)

by Zeljko Heimer, 20-JUL-1996

Horizontal triband in red-white-red; in the white stripe three 5-pointed stars in dark blue (positions at 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 of the width). At this time the islands presumably were independent under the name of Rarotonga. (I am not quite sure of the size of the stars, but one can argue if such things were fully standardized in the mid-19th century.)

Source: Flaggen und Wappen der Welt (Flags and Arms across the World), by K.H. Hesmer.

Harald Müller, 21-FEB-1996

"The ensign of Rarotonga, which flies over sundry islands in the Pacific, has a field consisting of three stripes, the upper and the lower red and the middle one white. Upon the white stripe are three five-pointed stars." The flag sounds authentic to me, as isn't the red-white-red flag of French Polynesia supposed to be based on an indigenous flag tradition?

Roy Stilling, 20-FEB-1996

I have found a reference to the flag of the South Pacific Trading Company (a NZ based company formed in the 1870s) which is the same as Josh's gif, with the addition of S P on the top red band and T Co on the lower one. My source (1966 NZ Encyclopedia) says the company's flag "...placed the initial letters of the company's name on the red panels of Queen Makea's (of Rarotonga) personal standard."

Stuart Park, 21-FEB-1996

1888-1893 Flag

by Zeljko Heimer, 20-JUL-1996

In 1888 a British protectorate had been established, the name presumably was still Rarotonga (no sources on that!). The Union Jack in the upper hoist corner is added to the 1850 flag. Note that, assuming the usual dimensions of the UJ (i.e. covering one fourth of the flag), two of the stars are partly hidden.

Source: Flaggen und Wappen der Welt (Flags and Arms across the World), by K.H. Hesmer.

Harald Müller, 21-FEB-1996

1893-1901 Flag

by Zeljko Heimer, 20-JUL-1996

The three stars were removed from the 1888 flag. The flag is red-white-red plus the Union Jack. In the center of the Union Jack a white disk bearing a palm tree is added (dimensions like the blue disk on the Union Jack in Niue's flag). The palm tree probably stands on a piece of soil (according to a picture in a bank note catalogue). I haven't found any details, so natural colors (green leaves and soil, brown trunk) can be assumed. The name was by now most likely "Cook Islands" (at least the above-mentioned bank note was issued in the name of a "Government of the C.I.").

Source: Flaggen und Wappen der Welt (Flags and Arms across the World), by K.H. Hesmer.

Harald Müller, 21-FEB-1996

To further confuse the issue, Colours of the Fleet has, "Between 1888 and 1901 Raratonga had four versions of a red/white/red horizontal triband with a Union Flag in the canton (one version having the Union defaced with a badge)". A Gale and Polden flag chart of about 1900 shows the version with a palm tree in a circular badge defacing the Union and labels it, "Federal Flag of Cook Island Group (Samoa)".

David Prothero, 04-OCT-1997

1901-1973 Flags

1901-1902 Flag

by Zeljko Heimer, 13-FEB-1996

1902-1973 Flag

by Zeljko Heimer, 21-MAY-1996

After 1901 the Cook Islands were administered by New Zealand. No flag was used until the 1970s. This would be the "Green Ensign", adopted in 1973, and later the Blue Ensign in 1985.

Source: Flaggen und Wappen der Welt (Flags and Arms across the World), by K.H. Hesmer.

Harald Müller, 21-FEB-1996

1973-1985 Flag ("Green Ensign")

by Jaume Ollé, 17-JUL-1996

On 4 August 1965 the Cook Islands (located in the Pacific Ocean) acquired autonomy, in an address by Premier Sir Albert Henry. In 1973 a national flag was announced, being green in colour (as the colour of life and everlasting growth) with fifteen stars (in the culture of the Cook Islands the stars represent faith in God) in yellow (yellow represents the people, their friendliness, their hope, faith, dedication, love, and happiness) in a circle symbolizing the unity of the fifteen islands and the union between the land and the people. The design was considered equally powerful in either a horizontal or vertical orientation. In 1975 Premier Sir A. Henry generously sent me various details on the flag, including some photos with the national flag flying in the background and some stickers of the flag made in New Zealand. The proportion is 1:2.

Jaume Ollé, 17-JUL-1996

I understand that this design was not quite official. Or was it? W. Smith shows it in his Flags and Arms Across the World, dating it 1973, and claiming that Cook Islands used several other flags as an independent country and protectorate before, but doesn't describe them. In Smith's book all the stars are pointing up (as on the European Union flag), and not outwards (as on current Cook Islands flag). BTW, Smith lists this flag as CSW/***, i.e. used for all purposes on land. Does that mean that Cook Islands had/has an army?

Zeljko Heimer, 20-JUL-1996

In The Flags by Eric Inglefield, the stars are pointing up too. However, in the photos and flag stickers sent me by Sir A. Henry the stars are pointing outwards.

Jaume Ollé, 17-JUL-1996