Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister for Pacific Peoples were in Auckland this afternoon at Te Oro Music and Arts Centre in Glen Innes, to mark 60 years since the Cook Islands Constitution came into being.
The event hosted by the Cook Islands Development Association of New Zealand also coincides with the start of Cook Islands Language Week celebrations.
Delivering a speech to members of the Cook Island community, Minister Peters shared his reflections on the close relationship between the two nations.
“We are a close family, because our links, as we know, are intertwined and ancient. Our first settlers share the same DNA, having left or been kicked out of the Cooks over 800 years ago. Our shared DNA was sheeted home some decades ago when, upon arriving in Rarotonga, Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Tom Davis’ greeting was simply, ‘Welcome home’,” says Minister Peters.
And we can celebrate that it endures, this strong link between our peoples. We can reflect, also, that it has been a model that has allowed the Cook Islands to succeed economically. The beating heart of our ‘Free Association’ is the right to choose. Cook Islanders are free to choose where to live, how to live, and to worship whichever God they wish.
They are also free to choose to leave the relationship should they ever wish to. And like in any close family, we would support them and wish them well.
In our troubled world, we sometimes need to stop, take pause from time to time, to reflect on our successes.
Today marks one of them, because there is much to celebrate in our 60 years joined together in free association as part of the New Zealand realm.
