Waka Kuaka

Publications received: March to June 2025

2025-05-28T21:37:56-05:00

Imprint and guidelines for authors

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Waka Kuaka | The Journal of the Polynesian Society, March 2025, Vol. 134, Issue no.1

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Exhibition: Ma uka i Ma kai: Quilting the Hawaiian Landscape

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Islands of Hope: Indigenous Resource Management in a Changing Pacific

2025-05-28T20:51:07-05:00

The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation

2025-05-28T20:41:48-05:00

Mele on the Mauna: Perpetuating Genealogies of Hawaiian Musical Activism on Maunakea

2025-05-28T19:29:57-05:00

Sight Lines: Women and Art in Aotearoa

2025-05-28T19:16:14-05:00

Benevolent benefactor, beholden beneficiary? Revisiting the promise of self-governance and free association between the Cook Islands and New Zealand.

2025-05-28T18:58:31-05:00

Political decolonisation within New Zealand’s Pacific empire resulted in unique and ambiguous “post”-colonial notions of statehood for much of New Zealand’s Realm. This paper considers one such outcome: self-governance and free association (SGFA) in the Cook Islands. It argues that the inability to call on definitive relational bounds—such as former colony and former administrator—has resulted in the formation of an oversimplified caricature. This caricature is dichotomous and is what I have framed as New Zealand as benevolent benefactor and Cook Islands as beholden beneficiary. If New Zealand is taken at its word as a Pacific nation that is sympathetic and culturally attuned to a shared Pacific vision, then the assumption is that it acts as an altruistic member of the Pacific regional order. SGFA becomes evidence of New Zealand’s beneficence, affording the Cook Islands a favourable process of decolonisation at the expense of the New Zealand government. Thus, the argument goes, the Cook Islands benefits more from its association with New Zealand than New Zealand does from its association with the Cook Islands. When this characterisation becomes normalised within political and public consciousness, the way that Cook Islands as a country and Cook Island people as a population are understood is done so through a fragmented and oversimplified stereotype. This paper argues that the benevolent benefactor and beholden beneficiary caricature is not only porous but pernicious; not only has New Zealand gained immeasurable harvest from its associate in the South Pacific, the Cook Islands has not always received the assumed benefits from its continued association.

Why did Niue choose the option of self-government in free association with New Zealand?

2025-05-26T21:47:37-05:00

On 19 October 1974, Niueans voted in a referendum to adopt self-government in free association with New Zealand (SGFA). While the Niue Constitution Act of 1974 has provided a foundation for the enduring relationship between Niue and New Zealand, 50 years on, it is time to reassess the arrangement in terms of whether it still meets Niue’s needs. What does this partnership look like today, and what will it look like in the future? With 34,944 people of Niuean descent living in New Zealand as of 2023—more than 20 times Niue’s population of 1,681—questions are raised about whether SGFA remains suitable or should be updated to reflect local and global changes, amid rising global tensions and shifting geopolitical alliances. Given the timeliness of discussion around Realm nations of New Zealand, as shown here in this special issue, there is a need to critically examine and review the agreement to ensure it remains relevant and effective for Niue.
To understand how Niue arrived at this arrangement, this article explores the reasons why Niue chose the option of SGFA with New Zealand, analysing Niue leader Robert Rex’s speech to the United Nations on 27 November 1973. Rex identified four key reasons for Niue’s decision: access to New Zealand, development under New Zealand, New Zealand’s perceived goodwill, and the perception that Niue already had a form of independence. On the basis of this speech, this article also explores the continuing impact of the arrangement for Niue and its people if it is maintained into the future.