Raiatea in the context of "Kupe"

HMS Endeavour was a Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.

She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, with the Navy purchasing her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". Commissioned as His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, she departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the islands of Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea west of Tahiti to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, becoming the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier.

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. The aims were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land". It was the first of three voyages of which James Cook was the commander.

The voyage was commissioned by King George III and commanded by James Cook, promoted from master to lieutenant so that he could take command of Endeavour. Cook had good skills in cartography and mathematics. Departing from Plymouth Dockyard in August 1768, the expedition crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in April 1769, before the expected transit on 3 June. After the observation, Cook stopped at the nearby islands of Huahine, Borabora and Raiatea to claim them for Great Britain before sailing into the largely uncharted ocean to the south and west. In October, the expedition reached New Zealand; Cook was only the second European to visit there, following the first voyage of Abel Tasman 127 years earlier. Cook and his crew spent the following six months charting the New Zealand coast, before resuming their voyage westward across open sea. In April 1770 they became the first known Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia, making landfall near present-day Point Hicks, and then proceeding north to Botany Bay.

The Society Islands (French: Îles de la Société [il də la sɔsjete], officially Archipel de la Société [aʁʃipɛl də la sɔsjete]; Tahitian: Tōtaiete mā) are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean that includes the major islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Huahine. Politically, the islands are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the French Republic. Geographically, they form part of Polynesia.

Hawaiki (also rendered as ʻAvaiki in the Cook Islands, Hawaiki in Māori, Savaiʻi in Samoan, Havaiʻi in Tahitian, Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian) is, in Polynesian folklore, the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories.

Anne Salmond states Havaiʻi is the old name for Raiatea, the homeland of the Māori. When British explorer James Cook first sighted New Zealand in 1769, he had on board Tupaia, a Raiatean navigator and priest. Cook's arrival seemed to be a confirmation of a prophecy by Toiroa, a priest from Māhia. At Tolaga Bay, Tupaia conversed with the tohunga associated with the school of learning located there, called Te Rawheoro. The priest asked about the Māori homelands, 'Rangiatea' (Ra'iatea), 'Hawaiki' (Havai'i, the ancient name for Ra'iatea), and 'Tawhiti' (Tahiti).

A marae (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), malaʻe (in Tongan), meʻae (in Marquesan) or malae (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term also means cleared and free of weeds or trees. Marae generally consist of an area of cleared land, roughly rectangular (the marae itself), bordered with stones or wooden posts (au in Tahitian and Cook Islands Māori), and perhaps with paepae (terraces) which were traditionally used for ceremonial purposes; in some cases, such as Easter Island, a central stone ahu or a'u is placed. In the Easter Island’s Rapa Nui culture, the term ahu or a'u has become metonymic for the whole marae complex itself.

In some modern Polynesian societies, notably that of the Māori of New Zealand, the marae is still a vital part of everyday life. In tropical Polynesia, most marae were destroyed or abandoned with the arrival of Christianity in the 19th century, and some have become attractions for tourists or archaeologists. Nevertheless, the place where these marae were built are still considered tapu (sacred or forbidden) in most of these cultures.

James Cook's third and final voyage (12 July 1776 – 4 October 1780) was a British attempt to discover the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic ocean and the Pacific coast of North America. The attempt failed and Cook was killed at Hawaii in a violent dispute with the local inhabitants.

The ostensible purpose of the voyage was to return Omai, a young man from Raiatea, to his homeland, but the British Admiralty used this as a cover for their plan to send Cook on a voyage to find the Northwest Passage, should it exist. HMS Resolution, to be commanded by Cook, and HMS Discovery, commanded by Charles Clerke, were prepared for the voyage which started from Plymouth in 1776.