Cook Islands War Veterans’ Graves Vandalised At Historic Rarotonga Cemetery

Susana
Suisuiki Pacific Waves presenter

A historic
cemetery in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, has been vandalised
devastating families and local community members.

An
Australian-based researcher, who has led the restoration
project at the Nikao Cemetery in Rarotonga for ten years,
says those responsible for vandalising the headstones need
to be prosecuted.

It was reported this week that a
number of headstones were knocked over, including the
headstone of researcher Cate Walker’s mother.

Walker
was notified by the Cook Islands Investment Corporation this
week, who sent pictures of the damaged
headstones.

Speaking to Pacific Waves, Walker
said the vandalism was something she never expected could
happen in the Cook Islands.

“Cemetery vandalism has
never happened before,” she said.

“We were just
completely shocked and hurt and devastated because everybody
there knows the amount of work that we have put into that
cemetery over the last 10 plus years.”

Nikao Cemetery,
facing the Rarotonga International Airport and sitting right
along a beach, is the largest burial place site for Cook
Islands soldiers who served in World War I. It is also the
final resting place of expats, tourists and cancer patients,
inlcuding Walker’s mother Gloria Walker who lost her battle
to cancer in 1978.

Walker took an interest in the
cemetery over a decade ago when she noticed that some
of headstones were being washed away and needed saving.
Since then a group of volunteers have regularly kept up the
site’s maintenance and restoration efforts.

The
restoration project has also prompted Walker to research the
Cook Islands’ role in military history.

She said when
she started her research, she had no prior knowledge of Cook
Islands wartime history but from clearing the cemetery from
overgrowth she has identified around 20 soldiers. The
veterans buried in Nikao are mostly from the Pa Enua, or the
outer islands.

Following its clean up, the cemetery
has attracted families to visit and reconnect with their
loved ones. In July, Walker and her husband Paul Morrissey
were awarded Honorary Permanent Residence in the Cook
Islands for the project.

Walker suspects there was
more than one person involved in the vandalism. Among the
damaged headstones was a soldier whose photograph that had
been installed by his family was destroyed.

The
desecration of the photograph had mortified
Walker.

“Someone has defaced that soldier’s picture,
that photo of a soldier on that headstone. That’s a sign of
someone who is very sick in my opinion, to do that and to
desecrate soldiers in general.”

“I mean that just goes
against everything that everyone has learned about respect
and respect of our veterans in particular.”

Walker
said she has not heard whether the Cook Islands Police have
launched an investigation but said they need to find who’s
responsible.

“This is not the culture of the Cook
Islands, I am highly doubtful that it’s someone who was born
and raised in the Cook Islands. So if the police can find
these individuals, they need to be dealt with hard by the
law.”

“They need to be assessed and get the help that
they need to move forward with their life, apologise to
families and the community, actually the whole
community.”

Despite the incident, Walker said the
response from the community had been heartwarming and a
working bee is planned for the weekend.

She said she
hoped there would be a large turnout to help with the
cemetery’s team of volunteers and that the vandalism will
never happen
again.

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