An Ethnographic Study of Cook Islands Maori Happiness: Experiences and Constructions of Happiness in Rural, Urban and Migratory Contexts of Cook Islan

This study aims to ethnographically investigate conceptions and experiences of 'happiness' amongst Cook Islands Maori in three geographic contexts, i.e. the rural villages of Rarotonga - the Cook Islands' largest and most populous island, the Cook Islands' urban capital Avarua, and Cook Islander communities in Auckland, New Zealand, where the majority of Cook Islanders reside. The research is situated within a wider, emerging 'anthropology of the good' that complements and counter-balances the discipline's focus on pathologies and addresses the limited ethnographic insights on human flourishing, striving and well-being.