MUNDURUCU
The Cook Islands are a Polynesian island group in the South Pacific, including Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Mangaia. Each island has its own history and traditions of dress, tattooing and ceremony.
On Mangaia, older accounts describe warriors with designs on their faces and buttocks. Spirals and other patterns could create an intimidating appearance before battle, while also carrying meaning within island life.
Visitors compared some facial designs with Māori moko in New Zealand. The resemblance was striking, but the patterns belonged to different communities and were not simply copies of one shared style.
Spanish voyagers reached islands in the group before James Cook's eighteenth-century visits. One received the name Gente Hermosa, or 'Beautiful People'. The later name Cook Islands appeared on charts in honour of the British navigator, adding another outside name to a much older island world.