Culture of the Cook Islands Culture of the Cook Islands The culture of the Cook Islands reflects the traditions of its fifteen islands as a Polynesian island country, spread over in the South Pacific Ocean. It is in free association with New Zealand. Its traditions are based on the influences of those who settled the islands over several centuries. Polynesian people from Tahiti settled in the Cook Islands in the 6th century. The Portuguese captain, Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, made the first recorded European landing in the islands in the early 17th century, and well over a hundred years later, in the 18th century, the
Miss Cook Islands Miss Cook Islands The Miss Cook Islands is the national beauty pageant in the Cook Islands in under Miss Cook Islands Association (MCIA). Began 1960 the Maine Kuki Airani (Miss Cook Islands) national pageant held for the first time and was usually happening in every two years. In the Miss Cook Islands pageant, beauty encompasses physical attributes and qualities that are seen to represent the community at large; respectability, talent and commitment to Cook Islands value. An yet, competing for the representative role of Miss Cook Islands necessitates that the participants negotiate contradictory moral proscriptions that define Cook Islands femininity.