ABSTRACT
While it is useful to conceive of nations as ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson 1991), so emphasizing their ideological and invented nature, it is also important to remember that they are also much more than this. Whether pursued by or against a state, nationalization, the creation of nationhood, is a project of organization and control, power and propaganda. In short, nations are also political projects. In this chapter I discuss the transformation of Cook Islands nationality since self-government in 1965. My primary focus is upon nationalization as a state project directed towards changing political and economic objectives. I seek to show how, during the first decade of Albert Henry’s government, Cook Islanders were co-opted into, and situated themselves within, this project as village members, women and youth. I then go on to narrate transformations of this nationality in the context of an increasingly tourism-dependent economy.
