More Top Stories
Cook Islands has its first mosque
14 November 2024
CI Muslim opens up about her faith and journey
16 November 2024
RAC to address mosque legality
19 November 2024
I don’t expect much change: PM Brown on US Elections
6 November 2024
Fifth weekly Sydney flight to Rarotonga announced
23 October 2024
CIIC directors seek $350,000 in damages over defamatory claims
21 October 2024
Man found guilty of rape, burglary
24 September 2024
Tenants face water bill burden
8 October 2024
Concerns over Minister’s role in inmate work releases: PAC
5 October 2024
Tourism contribution set to surpass half-billion dollar mark
25 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Parliament Clerk sparks outrage over deep sea mining statement
23 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Tapaitau and Charlie-Puna released to ‘family jobs’
21 September 2024
Police apprehend four juveniles in connection with motorcycle thefts
23 September 2024
Deep sea dilemma: Cook Islanders weigh the cost of mineral riches
21 September 2024
Anxiety on the rise: Cook Islands faces mental health challenge
7 September 2024
Cook Islands deep sea mining poll sparks controversy
7 September 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Rising seas, rising costs: Climate impacts on Cook Islands economy
2 September 2024
Inflation eases but concerns remain
31 August 2024
Prime Minister defends $659,000 MPs travel bill
23 August 2024
Taxpayers foot $659,000 bill for MPs travel and allowance
22 August 2024
Corruption report exposes ‘bribe and sexual favours’
17 January 2023
PM Brown eager to hand over Forum chair role to Tonga
13 August 2024
ICI explains road works delay in front of old Sheraton site
10 August 2024
Diaspora dismayed over lack of Te Maeva Nui livestream
8 August 2024
Everyone is a winner, says Culture
7 August 2024
Local women outshine global peers in business leadership
8 August 2024
Housing crisis hits tourism industry
27 July 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Challenging ‘rape culture’
8 July 2024
Articles by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne
Opinion: Success means quality of life Scorecard for Cook Islands
Saturday 17 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
We cannot fool ourselves into thinking full prisons, full hospitals, and empty homes because the parents are both working two jobs is somehow sustainable.
Thomas Wynne: The day is coming that we cut New Zealand's apron strings
Saturday 10 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Weekend
We are a country evolving, and evolving in our relationships with the 50-plus countries we have diplomatic ties with and especially the one we have free association with; New Zealand.
Thomas Wynne: Ma te inangaro One in love
Saturday 3 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Relevance, this was the question discussed at the Te Koutu Nui Conference this week with regard to our leaders and a question maybe, we can ask also of ourselves.
Wynne: Protest bring people together for dialogue Dialogue brings change for our grandkids
Saturday 27 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Weekend
As dawn broke at Mauna Kea to the north, and as dawn broke at Ihumatao to the south, sons and daughters of the moana gathered to fight for protection for their sacred lands.
Thomas Tarurongo Wynne: Repeating social media or thinking things through?
Saturday 20 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
If you tell a lie long enough, people will believe it. That’s why we must take time to form informed positions on debates like chlorine.
Thomas Tarurongo Wynne: In sickness and in health
Saturday 13 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
There were concerns Ariki were complicit in the loss of Cook Islands Maori self-determination, but in the second part in a series, Thomas Wynne says they played a critical role in improving their people’s health and education.
Thomas Tarurongo Wynne: For God, Ariki and country
Saturday 6 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
As we celebrate yesterday’s Ui Ariki holiday, what role do they play in our society?
Ownership is a term that is not our own
Saturday 29 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
As Maori we are caretakers not owners.
Thomas Tarurongo Wynne: What do we stand for?
Saturday 22 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
My family and I marched against the apartheid-backed Springbok Tour – so what stand must we take on Israel Folau?
Thomas Tarurongo Wynne: We all lose when people live below a living wage
Sunday 16 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
// On the back road away from the sundrenched verandahs and swimming pools, many of our people are struggling from week to week
E vaka tatou e ko tatou te vaka
Saturday 8 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
The vaka is us, and we are the vaka.
What if Jesus had Instagram?
Sunday 26 May 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I DO wonder sometimes if Jesus had an Instagram account what he would post on that account. As he made his way through the heights and depths of humanity, his fight with religiosity, his speaking with the woman at the well and his trials with the twelve men he called to be his disciples ultimately knowing one would betray him, and that in fact they all would as he made his way to the cross – what would he have posted?
Time for Change – Taui te Tuatau
Saturday 30 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I remember sitting at school in my 7th Form and going through our school’s constitution with my friend Robert Hucker (son of Auckland city Councilor, Bruce Hucker) and realising as we pondered through the rules and regulations that we could nominate each other to stand in our school board elections.
Tolerance is one of the great virtues
Saturday 23 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I remember entering the mosque in the city of Antalya in Turkey, looking up at its vastness and space, as the men gathered for prayer. It had been a visit of schools in Turkey and of dialogue, run by a group called the dialogue society and it was to build just that.
Our responsibility to share love
Monday 18 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Someone shattered the lens by which we see ourselves, the way we see our neighbours, those that are the same and especially those that are different last week. Someone took that lens and smashed it into 50 pieces with more pieces falling to the floor as we speak, as we ponder, as we gather our thoughts after the shock of what transpired in Christchurch last week.
No-one should be left behind
Wednesday 6 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
A washing machine, microwave, bedding … the list went on as a plea for a mama in our community went out as she desperately needed what amounted to the necessities for living here in Rarotonga.
What's in our name?
Sunday 17 February 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
We name our children, we name our vaka taurua -- in fact we name all the parts of a voyaging vaka. We name our villages, our tapere, and the land we build our homes on has a name.
When our silence betrays us...
Sunday 13 January 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
On Sunday afternoons, I sit in the covered courtyard, looking around at the tables and chairs, and I see families reunited, fathers kissing children, holding their wives and partners as they sit down for a meal. This could be a scene at the Social Centre, the airport or anywhere around our beautiful paradise, but it is not.
Honour when honour is due
Monday 10 December 2018 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Sitting in my hot office with a fan gently blowing the heat further around my office, every Wednesday I would wait for her return so as we could sit and talk, pray and meditate together.
'Just be quiet - because you don't live here!'
Monday 19 November 2018 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
“Don’t comment on what’s happening here in the Cook Islands. “You’ve chosen to live somewhere other than the Cook Islands, so you don’t have a right to speak.”