Cook Islands May Get a Maori Name To Cut Ties With Colonialism
The Cook Islands is following in the footsteps of Mount McKinley (now Denali), and considering a name change to reflect its true indigenous roots. The group of 15 islands in the South Pacific was named after British explorer James Cook in 1835, but that name has heavy colonial associations which don’t reflect the islands’ Polynesian heritage. The name change committee, launched in January, is gaining widespread support for the proposal, and it’s currently in the process of evaluating 60 names received from public submissions.