Mitiaro – Settled from Atiu, reached by missionaries in 1823
According to oral tradition, Mitiaro was settled from neighbouring Atiu and for a long time lived under Atiu’s influence. The first Europeans known to arrive came with John Williams of the London Missionary Society in 1823. He left behind a Polynesian teacher, Taua, who began converting the islanders – then numbering fewer than a hundred people – to Christianity. In the 1840s the island again faced attacks from Atiu.
In 1888 Mitiaro became a British protectorate as part of the Cook Islands Federation, and in 1901 it was annexed by New Zealand. Today it remains a small, close-knit island community in the southern Cook Islands. Do you have stories, songs or family memories from Mitiaro? Please share them with us!