Cook Islanders

Cook Islanders or Cook Islands Māori are residents of the Cook Islands, which is composed of 15 islands and atolls in Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean.

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.

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.

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

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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status to others, qualifications to be held by a permanent resident, and conditions under which that status may be withdrawn.

Nationality in this sense may be distinguished from citizenship. While it does not have distinct citizenship legislation, the Cook Islands has determined under its own laws who are its nationals and what privileges they enjoy by virtue of that status. Cook Islanders possess New Zealand citizenship with the full rights and privileges that status entails. At the same time, however, the Cook Islands has determined its own distinct nationality which, in effect, does not grant New Zealand citizens the same rights and privileges enjoyed by Cook Islanders in New Zealand.

Well over 90 percent of Cook Islanders are either of full or partial descent of the native Polynesian people of the islands, who are known as Cook Islands Māori. Cook Islands Māori share many ancestral links with the Māori of New Zealand and the native people (Mā'ohi) of French Polynesia. Some Cook Islanders are also of other Polynesian, European (Papa'a), or Asian descent.

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