Aitutaki – First of the Cook Islands to embrace Christianity, 1821
Polynesians settled Aitutaki between about 1225 and 1430, keeping voyaging contact with Samoa and the Society Islands. Oral tradition says Te Erui raised the island from the ocean after travelling from Avaiki. The first known European visitors were Captain Bligh and the crew of HMS Bounty on 11 April 1789, shortly before the famous mutiny. In 1821 missionary John Williams visited, and Aitutaki became the first of the Cook Islands to adopt Christianity.
The church in Arutanga, built by the teachers Papeiha and Vahapata, is the oldest in the country. Today Aitutaki, with its lagoon and fifteen islets, is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. Do you have Aitutaki stories to tell? We would love to read them!