This year's theme is “Kia pūāvai tō tātou Reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani i Aotearoa”, which means “That the Cook Islands Māori language may blossom throughout New Zealand.”

The Cook Islands community are the second largest Pacific ethnic group in New Zealand making up 20% of the Pacific population (Census 2013).

There are three distinct Polynesian languages spoken in the Cook Islands:

1. Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language with a number of dialects. This language belongs to the same language family as New Zealand Māori and the languages of Hawai‘i and Tahiti.
2. Pukapuka is a Western Polynesian language, belonging to the same language family as the languages of Sāmoa, Tuvalu, and Tokelau.
3. Palmerston Island has its own unique and distinctive mixture of Cook Islands Māori and English.

Room 7 attended a Cook Islands dance at the Ministry of Education, yesterday.